Latest Space weather Stories
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomers reported in The Astrophysical Journal they have a better understanding of the temperatures of the coronal cavities in Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). Terry Kucera, a solar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, along with colleagues, set out to understand the structure of CMEs, even before they erupt. CMEs are eruptions that take place on the sun that can travel toward Earth and disrupt...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online With the August 30 launch of the Radiation Storm Belt Probes (RSBP), the mission teams at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station celebrated a job well done. The mission specialists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) were celebrating too, but for many of them at Mission Operations Center (MOC) the job was just beginning. The first 60 days after launch are the commissioning phase of...
BRISTOL, Pa., Aug. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Exploring "space weather" - or changes in the Earth's space environment caused by the sun - means plunging into extremes of temperature, radiation and magnetic interference. When NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes enter these harsh conditions, DUNMORE Corporation multi-layer insulation (MLI) products will shield them from damage as they collect data and beam it back to scientists on Earth. The probes are exploring the kind of...
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), the first twin-spacecraft mission designed to explore our planet's radiation belts, launched into the predawn skies at 4:05a.m. EDT Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "Scientists will learn in unprecedented detail how the radiation belts are populated with charged particles, what causes them to change and how...
Watch the Video: Launch of Radiation Belt Storm Probes Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Thursday morning, after numerous delays, NASA finally launched its Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission. The twin spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday at 4:05 a.m. EDT, and both are now on their way to one of the most dangerous places within Earth's orbit. The RBSP took off aboard an Atlas V rocket, keeping up the United Launch Alliance launch...
[WATCH VIDEO] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA is launching twin satellites on August 24 from Cape Canaveral, Florida that will conduct the most intimate study to date of the Van Allen Radiation Belts that envelop Earth. The two-year Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission will study the extremes of space weather and should help scientists improve space weather forecasting. Space weather doesn’t seem like a big deal to most people on Earth, but,...
Video: The Radiation Belt Storm Probe Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA will be launching its Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida this Friday, August 24. The launch was delayed by 24 hours overnight Sunday due to an anomalous engine condition that was identified during testing of another Atlas vehicle at the Factory in Decatur, Ala. According to NASA's website, "the delay will allow additional time for engineers...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new report from the National Research Council lays out four scientific goals for the next 10 years along with guiding principles and recommended actions. The prioritized program of basic and applied research for 2012-2022 is meant to advance scientific understanding of the sun, sun-Earth connections, the origins of space weather, and the sun's interactions with other bodies in the solar system. This second decadal survey is the...
[ Watch the Video: STEREO Captures Fastest CME to Date ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online NASA's STEREO spacecraft has observed the fastest coronal mass ejection (CME) ever seen on the Sun. The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) clocked the massive eruption traveling between 1,800 and 2,000 miles per second as it ejected from the sun. NASA said this was the fastest CME ever observed by STEREO, which launched back in 2006. "Between 1,800 and...
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission will send two spacecraft into the harsh environment of our planet's radiation belts. Final preparations have begun for launch on Thursday, Aug. 23, from Florida's Space Coast. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The RBSP spacecraft are designed to fly and operate in the heart of the most hazardous regions of near-Earth space to collect crucial data. The data...
