Heliophysics News - SciTechDaily

Eugene Parker – Pioneering Astrophysicist Who Discovered Solar Wind – Dies at 94

Louise Lerner, University of Chicago — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 11:36:13 +0000

Prof. Emeritus Eugene N. Parker, a pioneering astrophysicist whose contributions to solar physics were so enormous that NASA named its Parker Solar Probe mission after him, died March 15. He was 94. Parker was internationally known for proposing the concept of the solar wind—an idea that was first met with skepticism to outright ridicule. The [...]

NASA Mourns Passing of Visionary Heliophysicist Eugene Parker – Namesake of Parker Solar Probe

NASA — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 03:51:08 +0000

Dr. Eugene N. Parker, visionary of heliophysics and namesake of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, has passed away. He was 94. As a young professor at the University of Chicago in the mid-1950s, Parker developed a mathematical theory that predicted the solar wind, the constant outflow of solar material from the Sun. Throughout his career, Parker [...]

UVSC Pathfinding Experiment To Study Origins of Solar Energetic Particles – Sun’s Most Dangerous Form of Radiation

Lina Tran, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 12:37:59 +0000

A joint NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory experiment dedicated to studying the origins of solar energetic particles — the Sun’s most dangerous form of radiation — is ready for launch. UVSC Pathfinder — short for Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph Pathfinder — will hitch a ride to space aboard STPSat-6, the primary spacecraft of the Space Test Program-3 (STP-3) [...]

NASA Scientists Observe Electric Blue Clouds in the Mesosphere

Mara Johnson-Groh, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 13:02:52 +0000

On the cusp of our atmosphere live a thin group of seasonal electric blue clouds. Forming 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the poles in summer, these clouds are known as noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds — PMCs. A recent NASA long-duration balloon mission observed these clouds over the course of five days at their [...]

NASA Heliophysics Research Details Substorm Activity Around Earth

Mara Johnson-Groh, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 16:31:13 +0000

Researchers have been studying the near-Earth environment for the better part of a century, but many mysteries — like where the energetic particles that pervade the area originate and become energized — still remain. In a new type of collaborative study, scientists combined data from 16 separate NASA and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) spacecraft [...]

SOHO Reveals Evidence of Seismic G-Mode Waves in Our Sun

Emily Baldwin, ESA (European Space Agency) — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 17:21:34 +0000

Using data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, astronomers have detected a type of wave called g-modes on the Sun. After four decades of searching, solar scientists have at long last found evidence of a type of seismic wave in our Sun, thanks to ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric [...]

Safety Tips for Viewing the August Solar Eclipse

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo, NASA — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 17:05:08 +0000

NASA has released information and safety tips for viewing the upcoming August 21st solar eclipse. More than 300 million people in the United States potentially could directly view the August 21st total solar eclipse, and NASA wants everyone who will witness this celestial phenomenon to do so safely. That Monday, a partial eclipse will be [...]

CLASP Provides First-Ever Polarization Measurements of UV Light from Sun’s Outer Atmosphere

Molly Porter, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center — Wed, 24 May 2017 14:58:31 +0000

Using data from the the high-precision science instrument CLASP (Chromospheric Lyman-Alpha Spectro-Polarimeter), scientists reveal the first-ever polarization measurements of ultraviolet light emitted from the sun’s outer atmosphere. Previous polarization measurements were restricted to visible light that is emitted from the sun’s surface. By looking at the sun with this new technique, heliophysicists — who study [...]

Scientists Review Space Weather Events Linked to Human Activity

Mara Johnson-Groh, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center — Wed, 17 May 2017 16:30:22 +0000

Scientists review the fundamental physical process behind space weather events that are linked to human activity and discusses the observations of their impacts. Our Cold War history is now offering scientists a chance to better understand the complex space system that surrounds us. Space weather — which can include changes in Earth’s magnetic environment — [...]

Van Allen Probes Reveal Man-Made Barrier Shrouding Earth

Mara Johnson-Groh, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center — Wed, 17 May 2017 16:09:50 +0000

A newly published study details the anthropogenic effects on the space environment, which started in the late 19th century and reached their peak in the 1960s when high-altitude nuclear explosions were carried out by the USA and the Soviet Union. Humans have long been shaping Earth’s landscape, but now scientists know we can shape our [...]

New IBEX Observations Determine the Strength of the Magnetic Field Outside the Heliosphere

Sarah Frazier, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 17:31:41 +0000

A newly published study uses IBEX data and simulations of the interstellar boundary to better describe space in our galactic neighborhood. Immediately after its 2008 launch, NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spotted a curiosity in a thin slice of space: More particles streamed in through a long, skinny swath in the sky than anywhere [...]

NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Celebrates 20 Years of Science

Sarah Frazier, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 16:43:19 +0000

ESA and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory celebrate twenty years of space-based science. After 20 years in space, ESA and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, is still going strong. Originally launched in 1995 to study the sun and its influence out to the very edges of the solar system, SOHO revolutionized this field [...]

NASA’s Voyager 1 Continues to Help Solve the Interstellar Medium Mystery

Elizabeth Landau, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 16:41:01 +0000

Data from NASA’s Voyager 1 Spacecraft show that the direction of the magnetic field has been slowly turning ever since the spacecraft crossed into interstellar space. NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft made history in 2012 by entering interstellar space, leaving the planets and the solar wind behind. But observations from the pioneering probe were puzzling with [...]

NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer Provides New Details on Solar System Boundary

Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:57:05 +0000

New research from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission provides the most definitive analyses, theories and results about local interstellar space to date. The new research is published in 14 papers in the October 2015 Astrophysical Journal Supplement. IBEX uses energetic neutral atom imaging to examine how our heliosphere, the magnetic bubble in which our [...]

Venus Transit Reveals Clues about the Venusian Atmosphere

Sarah Frazier, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center — Fri, 10 Jul 2015 16:06:24 +0000

Astronomers used the Venus transit to make measurements of how the Venusian atmosphere absorbs different kinds of light, revealing clues to what elements are layered above Venus’s surface. Two of NASA’s heliophysics missions can now claim planetary science on their list of scientific findings. A group of scientists used the Venus transit – a very [...]

Solution to the Coronal Heating Mystery Presented at 2015 TESS Meeting

Karen C. Fox, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 16:32:38 +0000

Researchers detail why the sun’s atmosphere is so much hotter than its surface, revealing that the heating mechanism depends on regular, but intermittent explosive bursts of heat, rather than on continuous gradual heating. The sun’s surface is blisteringly hot at 10,340 degrees Fahrenheit (5,730 degrees Celsius)— but its atmosphere is another 300 times hotter. This [...]

New Research Reveals Two Solar Wind Jets in the Heliosphere

Karen C. Fox, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 16:13:35 +0000

New research shows that the heliosphere is dominated by two giant jets of material shooting backwards over the north and south poles of the sun, which are confined by the interaction of the sun’s magnetic field with the interstellar magnetic field. As the sun skims through the galaxy, it emits charged particles in a stream [...]

20 Years of Science Discoveries From NASA’s Wind Spacecraft

Karen C. Fox, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 16:25:42 +0000

After 20 years, NASA’s Wind spacecraft is still going strong and helping scientists understand the forces that buffet near-Earth space. The end of 2014 marks two decades of data from a NASA mission called Wind. Wind – along with 17 other missions – is part of what’s called the Heliophysics Systems Observatory, a fleet of [...]

NASA’s Voyager 1 Experiences Three “Tsunami Waves” in Interstellar Space

Elizabeth Landau, Jet Propulsion Laboratory — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:55:23 +0000

New data show that the shock wave that NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft began experiencing in February 2014 is still propagating outward. It is the longest-lasting shock wave that researchers have seen in interstellar space. The Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced three shock waves The most recent shock wave, first observed in February 2014, still appears [...]

NASA Video Reveals the Difference Between Solar Flares and CMEs

Max Gleber, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 15:17:35 +0000

This short NASA video highlights the differences between coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares. How do you tell the difference between a flare and a CME in NASA images? Flares look like bright flashes of light on the sun. Coronal mass ejections look like clouds zooming out into space. Credit: NASA/SDO/ESA/SOHO/Nune There are many [...]

New Findings from X-Ray Instrument Settle Decades-Old Interstellar Debate

Francis Reddy, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 15:07:05 +0000

New research resolves a decades-old puzzle about a fog of low-energy X-rays observed over the entire sky, confirming the long-held suspicion that much of this glow stems from a region of million-degree interstellar plasma known as the local hot bubble. New findings from a NASA-funded instrument have resolved a decades-old puzzle about a fog of [...]

IBEX Explores the Magnetic System Beyond the Solar Wind

Karen C. Fox, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 14:57:34 +0000

Newly published research uses IBEX data to paint a better picture of the magnetic system that surrounds us, offering an explanation for a decades-old mystery on why we measure more incoming high-energy cosmic rays on one side of the sun than on the other. Understanding the region of interstellar space through which the solar system [...]

It’s Official – Voyager 1 Has Entered Interstellar Space

Jia-Rui C. Cook/D.C. Agle, Jet Propulsion Laboratory — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 14:04:13 +0000

A newly published study has confirmed that the 36-year-old NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft has left our solar system and has entered interstellar space. NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun. New and unexpected [...]

Study Shows Interstellar Wind Has Changed Direction

Karen C. Fox, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; NASA — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 14:42:13 +0000

Based on data spanning four decades from eleven different spacecraft, a new study shows that interstellar wind most likely changed direction over the last 40 years. Like the wind adjusting course in the middle of a storm, scientists have discovered that the particles streaming into the solar system from interstellar space have most likely changed [...]