In the News
News features from 2010 | 2009
- Curiosity and the Solar Storm
- 12.14.11 – Curiosity, launched on Nov. 26 on the Mars Science Laboratory, has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars using an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that monitors high-energy atomic and subatomic particles.
- Space Weather Workshop
- 12.06.11 – Five scientists speaking at a workshop at the 2011 Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco on Tuesday, December 6 at 10 AM PST will discuss the complex – and relatively new – research area of space weather.
- Solar Cycle Primer
- 10.27.11 – The number of sunspots on the sun increase and decrease over time in a regular, approximately 11-year cycle. More sunspots mean increased solar…
- Beautiful Red Aurora
- 10.25.11 – A coronal mass ejection (CME) shot off the sun late in the evening of October 21 and hit Earth on October 24 at about 2 PM ET causing red aurora in the U.S.
- Incoming Comet; Outgoing CME
- 10.04.11 – On October 2, 2011, an exceptionally bright comet headed toward the sun and disintegrated; moments later a large coronal mass ejection (CME) blew off the other side of the sun.
- Geomagnetic Storm Subsiding
- 09.27.11 – The severe geomagnetic storm that began yesterday when a CME hit Earth's magnetic field is subsiding.
- A Solar Flare and a CME
- 09.22.11 – Our increasingly active Sun produced a large CME yesterday evening and an X1.4 class flare this morning. This increased solar activity is a normal…
- Solar Activity Subsiding - Auroras Ablaze
- 09.12.11 – After last week's flurry of strong flares from sunspot 1283, solar activity is subsiding as this sunspot rotates over the sun's western limb. Aurora from last week's solar activity will be dancing in the sky for the next several day.
- X2.1 Solar Flare and CME
- 09.07.11 – Sunspot 1283 erupted with another flare yesterday that peaked at 6:20 PM ET. This was an X2.1 class flare, some four times stronger than the earlier flare.
- SDO Spots a Late Phase in Solar Flares
- 09.07.11 – Fifteen percent of the flares have a distinct “late phase flare” some minutes to hours later that has never before been observed. This late phase of the flare pumps much more energy out into space than previously realized.
- M5.3 Solar Flare Eruption-CME
- 09.06.11 – At 9:35 PM ET on Labor Day, the sun emitted an Earth-directed M5.3 class flare as measured by the GOES satellite.
- Sunspot Breakthrough
- 08.24.11 – Scientists detected several sunspot regions in the deep interior of the sun, 1-2 days before they appeared on the solar disc.
- Sun Unleashes X6.9 Class Flare
- 08.09.11 – On Aug. 9, 2011, the sun unleashed an X6.9 class flare. Though not Earth directed, we may experience radio and communications blackouts.
- Sun Packs a Double Punch-UPDATED
- 08.08.11 – The August 5, 2011 arrival of the combined August 3 CMEs caused many photographers in the northern U.S. and Europe to race outside with their cameras to record the colorful skies. They were not disappointed.
- Friday Night M9.3 Light
- 08.01.11 – Active solar region 1261 let loose with a short-lived M9.3 flare on Friday Night. No Earth directed affects are expected.
- SDO Spots Extra Energy in the Sun’s Corona
- 07.27.11 – Ripples in the sun’s magnetic field called Alfven waves have been shown to carry more energy than previously thought, possibly enough to drive the intense heating of the corona and to speed the solar wind to 1.5 million mph.
- Dark Fireworks on the Sun
- 07.11.11 – NASA has just released new high-resolution videos of the solar event recorded by SDO on June 7, 2011.
- Solstice Flare and CME - UPDATE
- 06.24.11 – A high-speed solar wind stream is currently impacting the Earth's magnetic field. The mixture of the high-speed stream and CME that erupted from solar corona on June 21 is expected to keep the geomagnetic activity level elevated. Auroral displays are possible at high-latitude locations.
- Having a Solar Blast - UPDATE
- 06.10.11 – Earth is still waiting for the arrival of the CME unleashed June 7, 2011 but the forecasts of the glancing blow have been substantially reduced. The Sun unleashed an M-2 solar flare, an S-1 radiation storm and a spectacular coronal mass ejection in the early hours of June 7, 2011.
- Surfing on the Sun, as seen by SDO
- 06.07.11 – Cue the surfing music. Scientists have spotted the iconic surfer's wave rolling through the atmosphere of the sun. More than just a nice photo-op, the waves hold clues as to how energy moves through that atmosphere.
- Memorial Weekend Light Show
- 06.01.11 – A high speed solar wind caused geomagnetic storms over the Memorial weekend and another high speed stream may produce even more starting June 4, 2011.
- SDO First Light Anniversary Contest
- 04.21.11 – April 21, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of when the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured its first images, an event referred to for all telescopes as “first light”.
- The Watched Pot and Fast CMEs
- 04.14.11 – Back in 2008, the solar cycle plunged into the deepest minimum in nearly a century. As 2011 unfolds, sunspots have returned and they are crackling with activity.
- RBSP - Mission Status
- 04.14.11 – The latest update on the Relativistic Proton Spectrometer instruments, the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science package, and the Radiation Belt Storm Probes Ion Composition Experiment that will ride on-board the RBSP spacecrafts.
- Celebrating 400 Years of Sunspot Observations
- 03.09.11 – On March 9, 1611, Johannes Fabricius, who would become the first person to publish a scientific paper on sunspots, used a telescope to catch his first glimpse of one of these dark spots on the sun.
- Monster Prominence Erupts from the Sun
- 02.24.11 – A rather large M 3.6 class flare occurred near the edge of the Sun on Feb. 24, 2011, it blew out a gorgeous, waving mass of erupting plasma.
- Launching Balloons in Antarctica
- 02.22.11 – A successful test launch in Antarctica for BARREL (Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses) shows how it will will work hand in hand with.
- SDO Sundog Mystery
- 02.11.11 – NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), best known for cutting-edge images of the sun, has made a discovery right here on Earth.
- Holes in the Sun’s Corona
- 01.11.11 – This SDO image from Jan. 10 shows a “coronal hole,” an area of the sun’s surface that sends magnetic field lines way out into space.
News features from 2010 | 2009
