Tag Archive for 'Solar wind'

Georgia Tech researchers propose that a ‘switch-like’ magnetosphere exists at Uranus in both equinox and solstice seasons, where the planetary rotation drives the interchange between an open magnetosphere and a closed magnetosphere each Uranus day. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Uranus Has ‘Switch-Like’ Magnetosphere

Jun 27, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics suggests that the magnetosphere of the ice giant Uranus gets flipped on and...

Artist’s impression of the Jovian aurora. Image credit: JAXA.

NASA’s Juno Mission Delivers Preliminary Science Results

May 26, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno mission is rewriting what planetary researchers thought they knew about Jupiter, the largest and most massive planet in our Solar System:...

A compact model of the heliosphere. Image credit: Dialynas et al.

Solar System’s Heliosphere Much More Compact, Rounded than Previously Thought

Apr 24, 2017 by News Staff

Many stars show tails that trail behind them like a comet’s tail, supporting the idea that our own Solar System has one too. However, new evidence from...

This image shows ancient Mars capable of supporting liquid water on its surface. Image credit: Michael Lentz / NASA Goddard Conceptual Image Lab.

MAVEN Finds New Evidence that Most of Martian Atmosphere Was Lost to Space

Mar 31, 2017 by News Staff

According to an analysis of new data from NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft, solar wind and radiation are responsible...

The first detection of Pluto in X-rays has been made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The main panel in this graphic is an optical image taken from New Horizons on its approach to Pluto, while the inset shows an image of Pluto in X-rays from Chandra. There is a significant difference in scale between the optical and X-ray images. New Horizons made a close flyby of Pluto but Chandra is located near the Earth, so the level of detail visible in the two images is very different. The Chandra image is 180,000 miles across at the distance of Pluto, but the planet is only 1,500 miles across. Pluto is detected in the X-ray image as a point source, showing the sharpest level of detail available for Chandra or any other X-ray observatory. This means that details over scales that are smaller than the X-ray source cannot be seen here. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / JHUAPL / R.McNutt et al; optical – NASA / JHUAPL.

NASA’s Chandra Observatory Detects X-Rays from Pluto

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have made the first detections of X-rays from Pluto. This X-ray emission comes from interaction between...

The Sun’s corona and solar wind. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Lisa Poje.

Latest Images from NASA’s STEREO Spacecraft Reveal Origins of Solar Wind

Sep 1, 2016 by News Staff

The details of the transition from defined rays in the upper atmosphere of the Sun to the solar wind have always been a mystery. Using NASA’s STEREO...

Space environment data collected by New Horizons over a billion miles of its journey to Pluto will play a key role in testing and improving models of the space environment throughout the Solar System. This visualization is one example of such a model: it shows the simulated space environment out to Pluto a few months before New Horizons’ closest approach. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio / Space Weather Research Center / Community-Coordinated Modeling Center / Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil, GMU.

New Horizons Observes Solar Wind Changes in Outer Solar System

Apr 6, 2016 by News Staff

The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has recorded significant changes in how the solar wind behaves far from...

Researchers Find What Causes Jupiter’s X-ray Aurora

Mar 23, 2016 by Natali Anderson

According to a study led by University College London researcher William Dunn, the solar wind is causing intense X-ray bursts over Jupiter’s polar regions. Solar...

Solar System and the interstellar medium. Image credit: NASA / IBEX / Adler Planetarium.

Scientists Determine Strength, Direction of Local Interstellar Magnetic Field

Feb 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), researchers have accurately determined the strength and direction of the magnetic field...

Moon. Image credit: Gregory H. Revera / CC BY-SA 3.0.

LADEE Confirms Presence of Neon in Lunar Exosphere

Aug 18, 2015 by News Staff

While planetary researchers have speculated on the presence of the noble gas neon in the Moon’s atmosphere (called a surface boundary exosphere) for...

This image was taken from a distance of 186 km from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; the jet is estimated to have a minimum speed of 10 m/s and originates from a location on the comet’s neck, in the rugged Anuket region. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team / MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA.

Rosetta Captures Dramatic Outburst from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Aug 11, 2015 by News Staff

A dramatic short-lived outburst from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was captured by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera aboard ESA’s Rosetta orbiter on July 29,...

Map of MAVEN’s auroral detections in December 2014 overlaid on the surface of Mars: the map shows that the aurora was widespread in the northern hemisphere, not tied to any geographic location. Image credit: University of Colorado.

MAVEN Sheds New Light on Atmosphere of Mars

Jun 24, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) spacecraft has observed three phenomena in the atmosphere of Mars: a polar plume of escaping atmospheric...

This image shows conditions observed by Cassini during a flyby on December 1, 2013, when the magnetosphere of Saturn was highly compressed, exposing Titan to the full force of the solar wind. In analyzing data from the encounter, the researchers observed that the moon interacted with the solar wind much like the planets Mars and Venus, or a comet. Specifically, they saw that the solar wind draped itself around Titan, creating a shockwave that formed around Titan where the full-force solar wind rammed into the atmosphere of the moon. Previously, scientists had thought Titan would have a different sort of interaction with the solar wind because of the complex atmospheric chemistry of the moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Cassini Observes Interaction of Titan with Supersonic Solar Wind

Jan 30, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have found that Titan – the largest moon of Saturn and the only moon in the Solar System with...

High-Speed Solar Wind Triggers Lightning Strikes

May 17, 2014 by News Staff

How does lightning travel through the air? A new study led by Dr Chris Scott from the University of Reading, UK, suggests that high-energy particles accelerated...

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