Latest Coronal mass ejection Stories

For the first time, an international team of astronomers have a side-on view as giant clouds of solar material leave the Sun and slam into the magnetic field of the Earth. On Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 April at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Preston, Professor Richard Harrison and Dr Chris Davis of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory will present spectacular images and movies of these dramatic events taken by UK cameras mounted on the two STEREO spacecraft.The two spacecraft that make...

NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories (STEREO) sent back their first images of the sun this week and with them a view into the sun's mounting activity.One image shows the first coronal mass ejection (CME) observed by STEREO's Ahead spacecraft, taken Dec. 9. The other two images show the sun's super-hot atmosphere. They were taken on Dec. 4, the first day of imaging observations for the Ahead spacecraft. The false color images show a number of bright magnetic active regions,...

European experts have played an integral role in developing and building the instruments on NASA's STEREO spacecraft. This exciting new solar mission will allow scientists to build on the work of the ESA/NASA SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission. The STEREO mission consists of a pair of spacecraft that will separate after launch and move apart. This will allow them to look at the Sun simultaneously from different angles.STEREO's mission is focused on the study of extraordinary...

Solar flares are tremendous explosions on the surface of our Sun, releasing as much energy as a billion megatons of TNT in the form of radiation, high energy particles and magnetic fields. The Sun's magnetic fields are known to be an extremely important factor in producing the energy for flaring and when these magnetic fields lines clash together, dragging hot gas with them, an enormous maelstrom of energy is released. This boiling cauldron of plasma is ejected at huge speeds into the solar...

"We have one solar maximum left to learn what we need to know before we send humans back to the Moon." "“-Prof. Robert Lin, Chairman of the Solar Sentinels Working Group, SPD, June 2006 NASA - In his 1970s book, Space, James Michener depicted a fictional Apollo mission that lost its crew to radiation from a massive solar flare. He based his tale on what easily might have been but for lucky timing: a massive flare on Aug. 7, 1972 occurred between Apollo 16 (April) and Apollo 17...

NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory mission will dramatically improve understanding of the powerful solar eruptions that can send more than a billion tons of the sun's outer atmosphere hurtling into space. The STEREO mission comprises two nearly identical spacecraft the size of golf carts, which are scheduled to launch on Aug. 31 aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Their observations will enable scientists to construct the first-ever...

By Matt ReynoldsBRATISLAVA -- Human beings may be at higher risk of strokes in years when the explosions on the sun peak, according to a neurologist who studied the records of 6,100 patients in Slovakia.Dr. Michal Kovac said he found a spike in strokes and brain hemorrhages in the town of Nove Zamky in southern Slovakia in years when solar flares -- bursts of energy stronger than a million nuclear bombs combined -- are most abundant.Kovac says his work, recently published in the Bratislava...

NASA -- The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft celebrates its 10th anniversary December 2. The SOHO mission, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), has allowed scientists to make significant advances in understanding the closest star, our sun. This includes the violent solar activity that causes stormy space weather, which can disrupt satellites, radio communication, and power systems on Earth."It's impossible to overstate the importance of...

Solar activity can be surprisingly good for astronauts.NASA -- Last month, the sun went haywire. Almost every day for two weeks in early September, solar flares issued from a giant sunspot named "active region 798/808." X-rays ionized Earth's upper atmosphere. Solar protons peppered the Moon. It was not a good time to be in space.Or was it?During the storms, something strange happened onboard the International Space Station (ISS): radiation levels dropped. "The crew of the ISS...

NASA -- Just one week ago, on Sept. 7th, a huge sunspot rounded the sun's eastern limb. As soon as it appeared, it exploded, producing one of the brightest x-ray solar flares of the Space Age. In the days that followed, the growing spot exploded eight more times. Each powerful "X-flare" caused a shortwave radio blackout on Earth and pumped new energy into a radiation storm around our planet. The blasts hurled magnetic clouds toward Earth, and when they hit, on Sept 10th and 11th,...