You are here

Month: May 2019

FrontPage Projections 

Scientists tackle a burning question: When will our quiet sun turn violent?

Admin,

For all of February the sun is nearly spotless, a smooth circle filled in with a goldenrod crayon. SCIENCEMAG.ORG It has been more than a decade since it was so lacking in sunspots—dark magnetic knots as big as Earth that are a barometer of the sun’s temperament. Below the surface, however, a radical transition is afoot. In 5 years or so, the sun will be awash in sunspots and more prone to violent bursts of magnetic activity. Then, about 11 years from now, the solar cycle will conclude: Sunspots will…

Read More
Solar Activity 

Sun’s Exotic ‘Lighthouse’ Pulses Captured on Camera for First Time

Admin,

SPACE.COM Scientists have finally captured some exotic solar activity on camera. A new study gives photographic proof that a substance called plasma on the sun sends out radio light in pulses, much like a lighthouse flashing its beam on Earth. Plasma, which makes up most of the sun, is often called the “fourth state of matter,” coming after the more familiar forms of solid, liquid and gas. Plasma is an electrically conductive gas that occurs when negatively charged electrons are stripped from the gas in a process known as ionization.…

Read More
Projections 

‘Monster’ explosions on the sun will ‘become more common’, Nasa warns

Admin

The sun will be rocked by an increased number of gigantic ‘monster’ explosions in the coming years, Nasa has warned. METRO Eruptions from the face of our star are called ‘prominences’ and cause vast amounts of superhot gas to shoot into space, often forming beautiful loops on the solar surface. The sun is about to reach a low point of activity called the solar minimum when the number of flares and sunspots and flares is dramatically reduced. Climate change deniers are known to hail this stage of the sun’s natural…

Read More
Power Grid 

Texas Lawmakers Pass Measure to Protect Electric Grid From Cyber Attacks, Solar Storms

Admin,

Cyber attacks. A solar storm. Sabotage and terrorist activity. THEHAYRIDE.COM An electromagnetic pulse of some variety. A yet-unthinkable nuclear blast from a rogue international actor. Or even just the Texas weather. The Texas electric delivery grid is vulnerable, but the Texas Legislature is close to taking the first steps to protect it. SB 475 by Sen. Kelly Hancock, which establishes the Texas Electric Grid Security Council, passed the House easily on Tuesday with no controversy and is on its way to the Governor’s desk following a few procedural steps. “This is…

Read More
FrontPage Other Planets 

Jupiter’s Magnetic Field is Changing

Admin,

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has detected changes in Jupiter’s magnetic field, making it the first planet known to share this feature with Earth. INSIDE SCIENCE For the first time in history, humans have detected a changing magnetic field on a planet other than our own — Jupiter. The latest revelation could help scientists better understand how a planet’s magnetic field changes over time. The discovery was made by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, named after the Roman goddess — mother of Mars and wife of Jupiter. According to NASA, scientists chose the name…

Read More
Space Weather 

A Nearly Mile-Wide Asteroid With Its Own Moon Hurtles Past Earth This Weekend

Admin0 comment

Binary asteroid system 1999 KW4 poses no threat of collision with our planet, scientists say. HUFFPOST.COM An asteroid that’s nearly a mile wide and has its own moon is set to zip by Earth during the weekend. Together, the two space rocks are known as a binary asteroid system, meaning two asteroids that orbit each other. The binary asteroid, called 1999 KW4 by NASA, will be around 3 million miles away from Earth at its closest point around 7:05 p.m. ET on Saturday, NBC News reports. Although some outlets have…

Read More
Projections 

Deep solar minimum is here and it could cause travel CHAOS and FREEZING

Admin, ,

EXPRESS.CO.UK THE solar minimum has arrived and scientists are warning of travel and climate CHAOS on Earth as they notice an all time high in cosmic rays. A lack of solar particles from the Sun is a sign the solar minimum is here, and it is allowing more cosmic particles – particles from deep space – to penetrate Earth. During a solar maximum, the Sun gives off more heat and is littered with sunspots. Less heat in a solar minimum is due to a decrease in magnetic waves. Fewer magnetic…

Read More
Aurora Borealis Earth's Magnetic Field 

EARTH’S MAGNETIC NORTH POLE IS RACING TOWARDS SIBERIA. WILL THIS SHIFT THE NORTHERN LIGHTS?

Admin, ,

NEWSWEEK The shifting of the earth’s magnetic poles will leave civilization more vulnerable to the coming changes in our sun. Like most planets in our solar system, the Earth has its own magnetic field. Thanks to its largely molten iron core, our planet is, in fact, a bit like a bar magnet. It has a north and south magnetic pole, separate from the geographic poles, with a field connecting the two. This field protects our planet from radiation and is responsible for creating the northern and southern lights—spectacular events that…

Read More
Space Weather 

NASA’s First Planetary Defense Technology Demonstration to Collide with Asteroid in 2022

Admin,

SOLARSYSTEM.NASA.GOV The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – NASA’s first mission to demonstrate a planetary defense technique – will get one chance to hit its target, the small moonlet in the binary asteroid system Didymos. The asteroid poses no threat to Earth and is an ideal test target: measuring the change in how the smaller asteroid orbits about the larger asteroid in a binary system is much easier than observing the change in a single asteroid’s orbit around the Sun. Work is ramping up at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics…

Read More