Latest Coronal mass ejection Stories

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) issued a geomagnetic storm watch as experts predicted that the biggest solar storm since 2005 is expected to hit Earth Tuesday morning, various media outlets are reporting. According to Fox News reports, at approximately 11pm Eastern time on Sunday night, the sun released an "immense blast of plasma" that has caused authorities to redirect the flight plans of certain high-altitude aircraft. In...

[ Watch the Video ] A subset of data that helps map out the sun's magnetic fields was recently released from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Observations that measure the strength and direction of magnetic fields on the solar surface -- known as vector magnetograms -- play a crucial role in understanding how those fields change over time and trigger giant eruptions off the surface of the sun such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Collecting the information needed...

Scientists have warned of a major solar storm hitting the Earth that could possibly knock out radio signals. Experts expect radio blackouts for a few days after the radiation from the coronal mass ejection (CME) hits our planet. The flare is part of a larger increase in activity in the Sun, which is expected to peak around 2013. "Category G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storms are expected 28 and 29 December due to multiple coronal mass ejection arrivals," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric...

Solar storms and associated Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) can significantly erode the lunar surface according to a new set of computer simulations by NASA scientists. In addition to removing a surprisingly large amount of material from the lunar surface, this could be a major method of atmospheric loss for planets like Mars that are unprotected by a global magnetic field. The research is being led by Rosemary Killen at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., as part of the...

[ Watch the Video ] Given a legitimate need to protect Earth from the most intense forms of space weather – great bursts of electromagnetic energy and particles that can sometimes stream from the sun – some people worry that a gigantic "killer solar flare" could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth. Citing the accurate fact that solar activity is currently ramping up in its standard 11-year cycle, there are those who believe that 2012 could be coincident with such a flare. But this...

[ Watch Video 1 ] | [ Watch Video 2 ] On October 25, 2006 a Delta II rocket launched from Cape Canaveral carrying two nearly identical spacecraft. Each satellite was one half of a mission entitled Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) and they were destined to do something never done before – see the entire sun simultaneously. The sun rotates, of course, so there's no part of the sun we haven't at some point observed from our vantage point on Earth. But watching this...

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Chabot Space & Science Center has been awarded a $412,000 grant from NASA to create an innovative solar astronomy exhibition showcasing stunning images of the Sun, examining "space weather" created by solar activity and its influences on the Earth. The exhibition is scheduled to open at Chabot Space & Science Center in the fall of 2013. The Sun not only dominates the weather on the Earth, it also drives weather in space,...

[ Watch the Video ] NOAA is now using a sophisticated forecast model that substantially improves predictions of space weather impacts on Earth. Better forecasts offer additional protection for people and the technology-based infrastructure we use daily. Explosions in the sun’s outer atmosphere – tracked and forecast by NOAA scientists – can cause geomagnetic and solar radiation storms at Earth that can impede the operation of electrical power grids, interfere with the normal...

NASA will begin development and testing of two science instruments, in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA), to be placed on ESA's newly selected Solar Orbiter mission. The spacecraft will study the sun from a closer distance than any previous mission. At its closest approach, the European-led project will operate approximately 21 million miles from the sun's surface, near the orbit of Mercury, roughly 25 percent of the distance from the sun to the Earth. This unique vantage...

[ Watch the Video ] NASA's Solar And HelioSpheric Observatory (SOHO) recently witnessed a sungrazing comet being eaten up by a coronal mass ejection (CME). The comet that disintegrated on October 2, 2011 was a sungrazing comet of the type known as a Kreutz Sungrazer, according to NASA. The Kreutz Sungrazers are a family of comets known for taking orbits extremely close to the Sun.  This family is believed to be fragments of one large comet that broke up several centuries ago....