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The northern and southern lights, which are usually confined to the Arctic and Antarctica, have generated awe and wonder for centuries. The northern lights were visible over St. Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay, England on Monday. The southern lights glowed over Lake Ellesmere on the outskirts of Christchurch, New Zealand on Monday. Over the next few years, the northern lights might appear further south more regularly, said Robert Massey, executive director at the Royal Astronomical Society. A National Weather Service employee took a photo of the northern lights in Maine on Sunday.

☆ A powerful solar storm is hitting Earth, sparking stunning northern and southern lights across the planet. Here's how to see them tonight.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A powerful G4 solar storm is hitting the Earth with winds as fast as 600 mph. Auroras seen in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, on March 24, 2023. NWS La CrosseThe spectacle also gave a treat to skygazers globally, with the lights seen across the UK, in the skies over Kyiv, Ukraine, and as far as Victoria, Australia. SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty ImagesThe powerful storm should continue until Monday evening. Storms like this aren't just prettyA view of the sun on April 21 shows the coronal mass ejection that caused the April 24 storm.

☆ Dramatic image shows a 'plasma waterfall' on the sun that's 8 times the size of Earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

This is the latest in a string of stunning solar events as our sun nears a peak of activity. The solar plasma 'waterfall' is shown here on the southern hemisphere of the sun on March 9, 2023. About every decade, the sun's magnetic poles flip, which causes havoc with local magnetic fields that are bursting all over our star. NASA Solar Dynamics ObservatoryA massive coronal "hole" in our sun that spewed energy towards the Earth in recent weeks. NASA / Solar Dynamics ObservatorySpace weather is not just prettyScientists don't only look to the sun to see these beautiful structures.

☆ Juice mission launches to explore Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —The European Space Agency has sent a spacecraft to explore Jupiter and three of its largest and most intriguing moons. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, launched Friday at 8:14 a.m. Toward the end of the mission, Juice will focus solely on orbiting Ganymede, making it the first spacecraft ever to orbit a moon in the outer solar system. The Juice mission was designed to unravel what takes place as Jupiter interacts with its moons, including auroras, hot spots, radio emissions and waves of charged particles. Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice.

☆ The Juice mission will soon launch to Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, was expected to lift off Thursday at 8:15 a.m. European Space AgencyGanymede, Callisto and Europa are ice-covered worlds that may contain subsurface oceans that are potentially habitable for life. European Space Agency“With Juice, we want to confirm there’s liquid water in these moons, confirm their heat sources. Testing and modeling of Jupiter’s radiation belts allowed engineers to prepare for what Juice will encounter. Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice.

☆ Giant 'holes' dozens of times the size of our planet are appearing on the sun. Here's how they could affect Earth.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Two huge coronal holes, dozen of times the size of the Earth, have appeared on the sun. These coronal holes can spew solar winds at 1.8 million mph toward our planet, which can cause stunning auroras and disrupt satellites. Coronal holes aren't actually holes in the sunA coronal hole rotates across the face of the sun, streaming solar wind towards Earth, February 1, 2017. Coronal holes happen in the "corona," the atmosphere of the sun, and can only be seen in UV or X-ray light. We could see this month's coronal holes again next monthThe coronal hole came into view as the sun rotated.

☆ A second giant 'hole' has appeared on the sun, and it could send 1.8 million mph solar winds towards Earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

These 'holes' can send 1.8 million mph solar winds towards Earth. As this first 'hole' begins rotating away from us, a new giant coronal hole — about 18 to 20 Earths' across — has come into view. Coronal holes release solar winds into space which can damage satellites and reveal stunning auroras if they reach the Earth. The 'hole' is positioned close to the sun's equatorThe coronal hole came into view as the sun rotated. The solar winds can blast very fast solar winds, with speeds of more than 800 kilometers per second, Verscharen said.

That caused the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, to make a rare appearance in skies across the US. The colorful lights were seen as far south as Arizona, much further than what was forecast. They normally occur in the Arctic, but powerful eruptions on the sun caused them to stretch as far south as Phoenix, Arizona before sunrise on Friday, according to images shared by photographers and skywatchers on social media. "Most people when they're seeing that far south... they're seeing it on the horizon," Young said. NWS La CrosseAnchorage, AlaskaAuroras in Anchorage, Alaska, on March 24, 2023.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a video of a tornado churning on the sun. The fiery formation of boiling solar plasma grew to an estimated height of 14 Earths. SDO/NASAThe magnetic structure that caused this tornado is actually a lot bigger than what we're seeing. As these move around the sun, they create magnetic fields that erupt through the solar surface. The sun is getting more activeA video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the massive hole in the sun's atmosphere.

☆ The US is bleeding tech workers to other countries — it needs to move fast or risk falling behind.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The US is losing tech workers to other countries. And so, many tech workers are opting to move and work there instead of the US. Plus, many of these countries are making their immigration systems easier for tech workers. My teammates Emilia David and Paayal Zaveri break down how the US is on the brink of losing an entire generation of tech workers. And it showed that Boomers and Gen Z both love many of the same cars, including the Toyota RAV4.

☆ The sun is getting more active than it has for a decade — and it could lead to power outages, grounded flights, and stunning auroras
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

That motion, called convection, is what creates strong magnetic fields at the poles and smaller, local magnetic fields at the surface of the sun. That instability causes havoc in the magnetic fields at the surface of the sun, which become much more active. NASA/Solar Dynamics ObservatoryAs the magnetic fields become more confused, bigger sun spots can appear on the surface of the sun. As the sun's local magnetic fields get more tangled and crash into each other, they can explode. "The aurora oval that sits up over the northern and southern poles is a result of currents flowing in the Earth's atmosphere," Owens said.

☆ 13 times solar storms caused freak events on Earth, from detonating mines to crashing financial markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

A solar storm shorted Quebec's power grid for 8 hours. NASA/SDOOn March 10, 1989, an enormous solar flare blew up on the sun with the power of thousands of nuclear bombs exploding at the same time. The particles created a strong current in the sky, and the Earth created electrical current in the ground to rectify this. This surged the Quebec power grid, which was out of commission for eight long hours on a weekday morning, affecting about 6 million people. And radio interference jammed signals from Radio Free Europe into Russia.

☆ The sun is about to get more active than it has for a decade — and it could lead to power outages, grounded flights, and stunning auroras
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

That motion, called convection, is what creates strong magnetic fields at the poles and smaller, local magnetic fields at the surface of the sun. That instability causes havoc in the magnetic fields at the surface of the sun, which become much more active. As the sun's local magnetic fields get more tangled and crash into each other, they can explode. The worst solar storm we've seen happened in 1859. But as SpaceX and NASA aim to ramp up missions in coming years, they will need to prepare for solar storms.

A NASA spacecraft is set to swing past one of Jupiter’s moons on Thursday, giving astronomers a close-up view of one of the most volcanic spots in the solar system. The Juno probe, which has been orbiting Jupiter since July 2016, is set to conduct a flyby of Io, one of the 80 known moons in Jupiter’s system. Over the course of the next year and a half, the Juno spacecraft will carry out a total of nine flybys of Io. NASA / JPL-CaltechEarlier this year, Juno captured a dramatic view of Io from a distance of around 50,000 miles. Last year, NASA extended the Juno mission through September 2025.

☆ Mesmerizing new NASA image shows the lava on one of Jupiter's moons that helps form the massive planet's auroras
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

NASA's Juno spacecraft snapped an infrared image of Jupiter's moon Io. Io is our solar system's most volcanically-active body, and its surface is peppered with lava lakes. In the image, taken on July 5 and released on Wednesday, you can see the shapes of lava flows and lava lakes as bright red spots. After studying the gas giant, Juno flew by Jupiter's moon Ganymede in 2021 and by Europa earlier this year. Scientists hope to gather more data on the moon's volcanoes and its magnetism — which play a "tug of war" to form Jupiter's auroras — as they fly by.

☆ How to stay safe in an extreme solar flare, where the sun bombards Earth with radiation and magnetic havoc
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Stay safe during a solar storm by preparing to lose power, printing out maps, and staying off planes. What is a solar flare and how do they affect Earth? CMEs primarily affect the magnetosphere, jostling Earth's magnetic field lines in an event called a geomagnetic storm, also known as a solar storm. NASAGetting ready for the possibility of a major solar flare isn't that different from getting ready for any other disaster. If you follow the basics of disaster preparedness, you'll probably be ready for a solar flare.

☆ 7 times NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spotted something Hubble missed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The James Webb Space Telescope can capture a more complete view of galaxies, stars, and planets. Before Webb, astronomers had another workhorse cosmic observatory: the Hubble Space Telescope. Webb is 100 times stronger than Hubble, which allows astronomers to peer even further into space. Webb spied countless galaxies that Hubble missedA side by side collage of the same area taken by the Hubble and the James Webb space telescopes. Where Hubble saw a faint dot, Webb resolved 2 distinct mystery objectsOne of the lensed images of MACS0647-JD, from the James Webb Space Telescope.

☆ Greta Thunberg joins march as activists sue Sweden over its climate policies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Hundreds of activists, among them Greta Thunberg, marched through the Swedish capital to a court Friday to file a lawsuit against the Swedish state for what they say is insufficient climate action. They want the court to determine that the country has violated its citizen’s human rights with its climate policies. “Sweden has never treated the climate crisis like a crisis,” said Anton Foley, spokesman of the youth-led initiative Aurora, which prepared and filed the lawsuit. At a recent U.N. climate conference in Egypt earlier this month, leaders tried to keep that goal alive but did not ratchet up calls for reducing carbon emissions. Climate campaigners have launched numerous lawsuits against governments and companies in recent years, with mixed success.

☆ Jupiter's aurora triggered a planet-wide heat wave, a map animation reveals, solving a mystery that's puzzled scientists
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

An astronomer's map of a heat wave on Jupiter helped solve the planet's "energy crisis" mystery. Solar plasma triggered an aurora at Jupiter's north pole, which sent a heat wave spilling down the planet. He's still studying the features of the heat wave, which he presented at the Europlanet Science Congress in September. O'Donoghue published his team's first research linking Jupiter's aurora to planet-wide heating in 2021. They think the aurora storm and resulting heat wave came from a surge of plasma from the sun.

☆ In its first 100 days, the James Webb telescope peered deep into space, took beauty shots of faraway galaxies and glittering nebula, and saw a spacecraft slam into an asteroid
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

In its first 100 days of observation, Webb has captured mind-blowing images, reaching astonishing cosmic distances. Webb captured violent interactions in a star system more than 5,000 light years awayWebb captured a series of 17 concentric dust rings spawned by the Wolf-Rayet 140 binary system. Webb took a 'deep field' image that filled astronomers with wonderThe James Webb Space Telescope's first deep field infrared image, released on July 11, 2022. Webb captured detailed views of the king of our solar system – JupiterWide-field view of Jupiter, captured by Webb. Webb snapped a beauty shot of the Carina NebulaThe star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula, captured in infrared by Webb.

☆ Side-by-side photographic glass plates and James Webb images show how telescope technology has evolved since the 1800s
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-10 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, astronomers catalogued the universe on glass photographic plates. Compared to faint objects stamped on plates, the James Webb Space Telescope's images show dramatic improvements in telescope technology. The exposures were made on glass plates coated with photosensitive emulsions, with astronomers later developing the plates like film in a darkroom. Compared with Webb's infrared images, photographic plates of the same parts of the night sky show how developments in technology led to clearer and deeper views of the cosmos. Webb's clear views of interacting galaxies offer sharper detail than faint glass plate imagesA glass plate image of Stephan's Quintet taken in 1974, left.

☆ Side-by-side Jupiter images show James Webb's infrared prowess. It spots auroras, rings, and faint galaxies Hubble can't see clearly.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-04 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Hubble Space Telescope has also taken Jupiter images, but Webb reveals details Hubble couldn't see. Often described as the successor to Hubble, Webb launched on December 25, 2021, after more than two decades of development. The James Webb Space Telescope image of Jupiter is on the right. Looking at Jupiter in infrared, Webb spots tiny moons Hubble can't pick out as easilyThe Hubble Space Telescope image of Jupiter, left, with its icy moon Europa. Webb gathers light from faraway galaxies that Hubble can't captureThe fuzzy spots in the background of the James Webb Space Telescope's images of Jupiter, right, are galaxies.

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