A satellite that aims to help weather forecasters predict extreme storms and offer scientists a better view of climate change is being readied for launch this month. The 1.5 billion dollar National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory
For all those who live in the Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East area, a short reminder to keep watching the clock for 17-18:00 UTC when you may be in the right place at the right time for a burst of activity from the annual Draconid Meteor Shower. There’s a
Minor geomagnetic storming (G1 on the Geomagnetic Storm Scale) is underway following the arrival at Earth of 1 or more Coronal Mass Ejections that erupted from the Sun late last week and into the weekend. Activity is not expected to strengthen much beyond current
On October 8th Earth is going to plow through a stream of dust from Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, and the result could be an outburst of Draconid meteors.”We’re predicting as many as 750 meteors per hour,” says William Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office at
Yesterday, October 4th, something exploded on the far side of the sun and propelled a spectacular CME into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the cloud as it emerged from behind the sun’s limb:Analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab have
A comet discovered by amateur astronomers on Friday, Sept. 30th, disintegrated in spectacular fashion the very next day when it plunged into the sun. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the comet’s last hours. The end was punctuated by an unexpected
On October 1st around 10:17 UT, widely-spaced sunspots 1302 and 1305 erupted in quick succession, revealing a long-distance entanglement which was not obvious before. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the movie of the double blast:Since it was
A comet is diving into the sun today. Discovered on Sept. 29th by a group of four independent comet hunters (M. Kusiak, S. Liwo, B. Zhou and Z. Xu), the icy visitor from the outer solar system is evaporating furiously as it approaches the hot star. SOHO (the Solar and
At a NASA teleconference yesterday, researchers working with data from the Messenger spacecraft offered new evidence that gusts of solar wind are penetrating Mercury’s magnetic field and eroding material off the planet’s surface. The spacecraft has actually flown
A CME hit Earth’s magnetic field on Sept. 26th, sparking one of the strongest magnetic storms in years. At the peak of the Kp=8 disturbance, auroras were sighted around both poles and more than half a dozen US states. Magnetic reverberations continued for more than 48
