January 2019
Preparing for a robotic revolution in Earth orbit
... short-circuits. 6. Electrostatic discharge. Surfaces of spacecraft can develop high electrostatic potentials due to the solar wind. Since different parts could charge to different potentials, grounding (earthing) systems are employed to prevent...
13 February 2019
Magnetopause makes Earth one enormous drum
... the abrupt boundary between Earth’s magnetic field and the solar wind – the magnetopause – acted much like the top of...also helps preserve our planet from the harmful radiation of the solar wind. Understanding all that is does and how it behaves will ...
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...
July 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...
October 2019
Electric orbit raising and space weather
...Such disturbances typically occur more frequently during periods of maximum sunspot number and coincide with changes in solar wind conditions causing a distortion of Earth’s magnetosphere. This can occur, for example, when large amounts of plasma are...
