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Recent Articles
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Topic: Solar Wind
NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names online to be placed on a microchip aboard NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission launching in summer 2018. The mission will travel through the Sun’s atmosphere, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and your name will go along for the ride. “This probe will journey to a region humanity has never explored before,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This mission will answer questions scientists have sought to uncover for more than six decades.” ![]() Illustration of the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the Sun. (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA’s Voyager probes make their mark in Popular CultureWritten by Elizabeth Landau
This year, we celebrated 40 years since the launch of NASA’s twin Voyager probes — the two farthest, fastest spacecraft currently in operation. Each Voyager has contributed an enormous amount of knowledge about the solar system, including the unexpected diversity of its planets and their moons. Among their many distinctions, Voyager 1 is the only spacecraft to enter interstellar space, and Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to fly by all four giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. ![]() Each Voyager spacecraft carries a copy of the Golden Record, which has been featured in several works of science fiction. The record’s protective cover, with instructions for playing its contents, is shown at left. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA’s MAVEN Orbiter observes Global Aurora on Mars SurfaceWritten by Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown
“NASA’s distributed set of science missions is in the right place to detect activity on the Sun and examine the effects of such solar events at Mars as never possible before,” said MAVEN Program Scientist Elsayed Talaat, program scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington, for NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission. The solar event on September 11th, 2017 sparked a global aurora at Mars more than 25 times brighter than any previously seen by the MAVEN orbiter, which has been studying the Martian atmosphere’s interaction with the solar wind since 2014. ![]() These images from the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph on NASA’s MAVEN orbiter show the appearance of a bright aurora on Mars during a solar storm in September 2017. The purple-white colors shows the intensity of ultraviolet light on Mars’ night side before (left) and during (right) the event. (NASA/Univ. of Colorado) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA along with European Space Agency observe how Solar Storms move through SpaceWritten by Sarah Frazier
NASA researchers wish to improve our understanding of CMEs and how they move through space because they can interact with the magnetic field around Earth, affecting satellites, interfering with GPS signals, triggering auroras, and — in extreme cases — straining power grids. While we track CMEs with a number of instruments, the sheer size of the solar system means that our observations are limited, and usually taken from a distance. ![]() ESA and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory observed a coronal mass ejection erupting from the Sun on Oct. 14, 2014. Scientists went on to track this coronal mass ejection through the solar system using 10 NASA and ESA spacecraft. (The bright light appearing at roughly 2 o’clock is the planet Mercury.) (ESA/NASA/SOHO) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA looks into Tethering Two CubeSats to study Swirl Patterns on the MoonWritten by Lori Keesey
NASA’s Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies, or PSDS3, program recently selected a team at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, to further develop a mission concept called the Bi-sat Observations of the Lunar Atmosphere above Swirls, or BOLAS. The study, led by Goddard Principal Investigator Timothy Stubbs, could lead to the first tethered planetary CubeSat mission, Stubbs said. ![]() This artist’s drawing shows how two CubeSats, connected by a miles-long tether, would gather measurements on the moon. (NASA) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA’s Voyager Spacecrafts broke new ground during 40 years explorationWritten by Elizabeth Landau
Launched in 1977, the Voyagers delivered many surprises and discoveries from their encounters with the gas giants of the outer solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. ![]() This montage of images of the planets visited by Voyager 2 was prepared from an assemblage of images taken by the 2 Voyager spacecraft. (NASA/JPL) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA’s Voyager Spacecrafts continue exploration after 40 YearsWritten by Elizabeth Landau / Jia-Rui Cook
Their story has not only impacted generations of current and future scientists and engineers, but also Earth’s culture, including film, art and music. Each spacecraft carries a Golden Record of Earth sounds, pictures and messages. Since the spacecraft could last billions of years, these circular time capsules could one day be the only traces of human civilization. ![]() An artist concept depicting one of the twin Voyager spacecraft. Humanity’s farthest and longest-lived spacecraft are celebrating 40 years in August and September 2017. (NASA/JPL-Caltech) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft celebrates 1,000 Days in OrbitWritten by Nancy Jones
MAVEN is bringing insight to how the sun stripped Mars of most of its atmosphere, turning a planet once possibly habitable to microbial life into a barren desert world. ![]() This artist concept shows the MAVEN spacecraft and the limb of Mars. (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA launches Three Sounding Rockets to study Alaska AurorasWritten by Keith Koehler
The instruments were successfully carried on Black IX sounding rockets from the Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks. The first two rockets were launched nearly simultaneously at 12:41am and 12:42:30am EST as part of the Neutral Jets in Auroral Arcs mission. ![]() Two NASA sounding rockets are launched 90-seconds apart into an active aurora from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. (NASA/Terry Zaperach) «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft makes adjustment to avoid Mars Moon PhobosWritten by Nancy Neal Jones
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft has been orbiting Mars for just over two years, studying the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. On Tuesday, February 28th, the spacecraft carried out a rocket motor burn that boosted its velocity by 0.4 meters per second (less than 1 mile per hour). «Read the rest of this article» Sections: Technology | No Comments
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