I remember when Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched by NASA in separate months in the summer of 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. As originally designed, they were to conduct closeup studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn’s rings, and the larger moons of the two planets. To accomplish their two-planet mission, the spacecraft were built to last five years. But as we see, they achieved all their objectives and then some!
Guess what the sun had for dinner this week? Give up? Okay, I’ll let you in on the story… Our local star ate a comet.
NASA’s orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory had been studying comet ATLAS S1 approach the sun, using its occulter to block out the light from our star’s disk and astronomers got to witness its last moments.
What would you hope they’d see or hear first? I love Neil’s answer.
With the recent flux of aurora, I’m sure many of you have heard the use of two terms: solar flare and coronal mass ejection (CME). While both reach Earth and can produce auroras, they are not to be confused with one another…
SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM PREDICTED: A geomagnetic storm (G1-G3) that sparked auroras as far south as Arizona and Texas on Oct. 7th and 8th is finally over. If you missed the show, good news: more auroras are in the offing. The sun just launched another CME directly toward Earth, and it could cause a severe G4-class storm when it arrives on Oct. 10th…
