Space Weather
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NASA
NASA Mission to Study Space Weather Impacts of Earth’s Atmosphere
NASA selected a mission concept to research how space weather and dynamics within Earth’s atmosphere influence the space environment and help improve prediction capabilities for impacts on crucial technology, such as GPS and low Earth orbit satellites, as well as astronauts in space. The DAPHNE (Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer) mission will enter Phase B of development, which includes planning and design for flight…
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NASA
NASA’s AWE Completes Mission to Study Earth’s Effect on Space Weather
On May 21, ground controllers powered down NASA’s AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) instrument, bringing the data collection phase of the mission to a successful and scheduled end, surpassing its planned two-year mission. Installed on the exterior of the International Space Station since November 2023, AWE studied atmospheric gravity waves, which are giant ripples in the atmosphere caused by strong winds flowing over…
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NASA
Discovery Alert: Flaring Star, Toasted Planet
The Discovery A giant planet some 400 light-years away, HIP 67522 b, orbits its parent star so tightly that it appears to cause frequent flares from the star’s surface, heating and inflating the planet’s atmosphere. Key Facts On planet Earth, “space weather” caused by solar flares might disrupt radio communications, or even damage satellites. But Earth’s atmosphere protects us from…
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NASA
Mining Old Data From NASA’s Voyager 2 Solves Several Uranus Mysteries
NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained oddities. A recent data dive has offered answers. When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first — and, so far, only — close glimpse of this strange, sideways-rotating outer planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons…
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NASA
NASA Partnerships Bring 2024 Total Solar Eclipse to Everyone
On Monday, April 8, NASA and its partners will celebrate the wonders of the total solar eclipse as it passes over North America, with the path of totality in the United States, from Kerrville, Texas, to Houlton, Maine. Solar eclipse NASA Eclipses are an important contribution to NASA’s research into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, and the part of…
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NASA
NASA Signs Memorandum of Agreement for Space Weather
On Dec. 7, 2023, Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, signed on behalf of the agency the Memorandum of Agreement for Space Weather Research-To-Operations-To-Research Collaboration. This quad-agency agreement is between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Air Force. The memorandum outlines the responsibilities for collaboration across the federal government…
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NASA
NASA Selects Proposals to Advance Understanding of Space Weather
NASA has selected three proposals for concept studies of missions that could help us better understand the dynamic space weather system driven by the Sun that manifests near Earth. The proposals examine what drives different parts of that system and ultimately could help us predict and mitigate its effects on spacecraft and astronauts, as NASA’s Artemis program looks to send the first…
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