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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New Tools for Predicting Arrival, Impact of Solar Storms

    August 12, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    On Jan. 7, 2014, the Sun's surface erupted with an unusually large explosion, called coronal mass ejection (CME), with NOAA releasing a significant false alarm geomagnetic storm at Earth. Credit: NASA

    On Jan. 7, 2014, the Sun’s surface erupted with an unusually large explosion, called coronal mass ejection (CME), with NOAA releasing a significant false alarm geomagnetic storm at Earth. Credit: NASA

    When the sun hurls a billion tons of high-energy particles and magnetic fields into space at speeds of >a million miles/ hour and the ‘space weather’ conditions are right, the resulting geomagnetic storm at Earth can wreak havoc on communication and navigation systems, electrical power grids, and pose radiation hazards to astronauts and airline passengers and crew.

    University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center (SSC) scientists are now adding some powerful tools to the predictive toolbox using data from NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, Geo-chemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER,...

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    What Resupplies Pluto’s Nitrogen content as its Atmosphere is Depleted?

    August 12, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s concept of the interaction of the solar wind (the supersonic outflow of electrically charged particles from the Sun) with Pluto’s predominantly nitrogen atmosphere. Some of the molecules that form the atmosphere have enough energy to overcome Pluto’s weak gravity and escape into space, where they are ionized by solar ultraviolet radiation. As the solar wind encounters the obstacle formed by the ions, it is slowed and diverted (depicted in the red region), possibly forming a shock wave upstream of Pluto. The ions are “picked up” by the solar wind and carried in its flow past the dwarf planet to form an ion or plasma tail (blue region). The Solar Wind around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on the New Horizons spacecraft made the first measurements of this region of low-energy atmospheric ions shortly after closest approach on July 14. Such measurements will enable the SWAP team to determine the rate at which Pluto loses its atmosphere and, in turn, will yield insight into the evolution of the Pluto’s atmosphere and surface. Also illustrated are the orbits of Pluto’s five moons and the trajectory of the spacecraft. Credits: NASA/APL/SwRI.

    Artist’s concept of the interaction of the solar wind (the supersonic outflow of electrically charged particles from the Sun) with Pluto’s predominantly nitrogen atmosphere. Some of the molecules that form the atmosphere have enough energy to overcome Pluto’s weak gravity and escape into space, where they are ionized by solar ultraviolet radiation. As the solar wind encounters the obstacle formed by the ions, it is slowed and diverted (depicted in the red region), possibly forming a shock wave upstream of Pluto. The ions are “picked up” by the solar wind and carried in its flow past the dwarf planet to form an ion or plasma tail (blue region)...

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    Space Farming Yields a Crop of Benefits for Earth

    August 11, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology, Environment/Geology

    Air Cleaner

    NASA air purification technology, originally designed for plant-growing experiments on the space station, has been licensed and turned into a consumer device that keeps household air cleaner and healthier. Credits: Akida Holdings Inc.

    The red romaine lettuce is far from the first crop grown on a space station. For decades, NASA etc have experimented with plants in space, but the results were always sent to Earth for examination, rather than eaten. A number of technologies NASA has explored have found their way onto the market.

    Orbital Technologies (ORBITEC) partnered with Kennedy Space Center to develop the plant growth system: Veggie, that produced this most recent crop of lettuce, as well as its predecessor, Biomass Production System...

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    Charting the slow death of the universe

    August 11, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The distribution of galaxies as mapped by various Australia, US and European survey teams. In total we have mapped the locations of over 4million galaxies that can be used to study the evolution of mass, energy and structure in the Universe over the past few billion years. Credit: ICRAR/GAMA and ESO

    The distribution of galaxies as mapped by various Australia, US and European survey teams. In total we have mapped the locations of over 4million galaxies that can be used to study the evolution of mass, energy and structure in the Universe over the past few billion years. Credit: ICRAR/GAMA and ESO

    Astronomers studying >200,000 galaxies have measured the energy generated within a large portion of space more precisely than ever before. They confirm that the #energy produced in a section of the Universe today is only ~1/2 what it was 2B yrs ago and find that this fading is occurring across #all #wavelengths from the UV to the far infrared. The Universe is slowly #dying.

    The study involves many of the world’s most powerful telescopes, including ESO’s #VISTA and #VST survey telescopes at th...

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