09 July 2021
Astronomers solve 40-year-old mystery of what causes Jupiter’s X-ray auroras
... space where they join up with the magnetic field in the solar wind; the stream of electrically charged particles that emanate from the Sun...back, are being struck directly by the ions of the solar wind. But, instead of being repelled and sent back out...
31 January 2020
First images of new solar telescope produces most detailed images of the Sun
... hits Earth makes life possible. In the 1950s, scientists figured out that a solar wind blows from the sun to the edges of the solar system. They also deduced for the first time that we live inside the...
June 2014
In thrall to a star: understanding the Sun will help us understand our own climate and environment
... to a common scale (image courtesy of NASA and Greg Kopp) Solar activity is typically defined in terms of the number of sunspots observed ... from the SOHO/ EIT telescope with the bulk solar wind speed measured by the ACE satellite superimposed. The ...
June 2015
Ultimate sunbather: NASA and ESA collaborate on Solar Orbiter
... the heliosphere; how and where the outward flowing ‘solar wind’ plasma and magnetic field originate in the Sun’s ... nitrogen purging of the instruments right through to launch. The Solar Orbiter mechanical and thermal model in the clean room at the...
August 2017
Big science from small spacecraft
... Destinations So where can we reasonably expect to explore in our Solar System with smaller spacecraft? The Sun is an obvious target, ... magnetic field, including its interaction with the solar wind. Observing our Sun The Sun is a massive, roiling, dynamic...
November 2018
BepiColombo – a mission to explore Mercury
...) on the other hand, will study the gaseous interaction between Mercury’s surface, exosphere, magnetosphere and the solar wind and interplanetary medium. A further seven instruments–MGNS (Mercury Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer), MIXS (Mercury...
