DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Solar Orbiter images capture bursts of activity on the sun’s surface
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-20 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Parker Solar Probe is poised to make the closest approach to the sun attempted by a spacecraft in late December, while Solar Orbiter is tasked with taking the closest-ever images of the sun’s surface. What’s more, the Solar Orbiter and Parker Solar Probe are studying the sun at close distances at an ideal time — during the peak of its annual cycle. “These new high-resolution maps from Solar Orbiter’s PHI instrument show the beauty of the Sun’s surface magnetic field and flows in great detail. A magnetogram shows the line-of-sight direction of the sun's magnetic field, which clusters around sunspots. Experts track increasing solar activity by counting how many sunspots appear on the sun’s surface.

Persons: Helioseismic, Parker, ”, Daniel Müller, Helioseismic Imager, European Space Agency Mark Miesch, Miesch, “, Elsayed Talaat Organizations: CNN, Solar, Orbiter, European Space Agency, NASA, Probe, Parker, Solar Orbiter, Space Agency, National Oceanic, Prediction, Cooperative Institute for Research, Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Scientists, NOAA

☆ Solar storm hits Mars, creating planet-engulfing auroras, NASA says
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-14 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —When the sun unleashed an extreme solar storm and hit Mars in May, it engulfed the red planet with auroras and an influx of charged particles and radiation, according to NASA. Solar radiation hits MarsThe most extreme storm occurred on May 20 after an X12 flare released from the sun, according to data collected by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft currently studying the sun. The Curiosity rover, currently exploring Gale Crater just south of the Martian equator, took black-and-white images using its navigation cameras during the solar storm. But Mars lost its magnetic field billions of years ago, which means the planet has no shield from incoming energized solar particles. By tracing the data from multiple Martian missions, scientists were able to watch how the solar storm unfolded.

Persons: Gale, “, ”, Don Hassler, ” Auroras, Mars, Deborah Padgett, MAVEN, Christina Lee Organizations: CNN, NASA, Solar Orbiter, Goddard Space Flight, Mars, Caltech, JPL, Southwest Research, Exploration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of California, Space Sciences Laboratory Locations: Northern California, Alabama, Greenbelt , Maryland, Boulder , Colorado, Pasadena , California

☆ Auroras could appear over the next week as solar activity increases
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The center, a division of the National Weather Service, issued a modern geomagnetic storm watch, known as a G2, for Friday and Saturday. Unlike the G5, or extreme geomagnetic storm, that occurred on May 10, moderate storm watches are not uncommon, according to the center. But the aurora-causing solar flares and coronal mass ejections currently spewing from the sun are a result of the same sunspots that triggered solar activity in May, according to Dr. Ryan French, solar physicist at the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado. “The frequency of things is decreasing, but you only need one to cause a large geomagnetic storm. The solar storm on May 10 was the most successfully mitigated space weather storm in history, Dahl said.

Persons: Ryan French, Lokman Vural, “ It’s, ”, Shawn Dahl, Dahl, ” Dahl, “, That’s, there’s Organizations: CNN, United, National Oceanic, Prediction, National Weather Service, Anadolu Agency, Getty, Solar Dynamics, auroras, ”, European Space Agency Locations: United States, Midwest, New York, Idaho, Boulder , Colorado, Rochester , New York, Sweden, South Africa

☆ 2024 is a big year for the sun. This Helio year, see a total eclipse, solar storms, and NASA almost landing on our star.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The sun has a big year in 2024, starting with a total solar eclipse across the US. NASA's Parker Solar Probe will fly closer to the sun than any spacecraft ever, almost landing on it. One of the main events this year will be a historically cool total solar eclipse crossing the US in April. AdvertisementIn a total solar eclipse, the moon passes in front of the sun as seen from Earth, darkening the sky. For example, NASA is launching three rockets during the April total solar eclipse, loaded with instruments to study how the sudden darkness changes our upper atmosphere.

Persons: NASA's Parker, —, It's, Rodrigo Garrido, Rune Stoltz Bertinussen, Kelly Korreck, Connie Moore, NASA's, Nour Raouafi, Johns Hopkins, Steve Gribben, Raouafi, That's Organizations: Probe, Service, American Geophysical Union, Reuters, NASA, Parker Locations: San Francisco, Northern, Arizona, Australia, New Zealand, South America, Tromso, Norway

ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI team/Handout via REUTERS File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBENGALURU, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Following quickly on the success of India's moon landing, the country's space agency launched a rocket on Saturday to study the sun in its first solar mission. The rocket left a trail of smoke and fire as scientists clapped, a live broadcast on the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) website showed. While Russia had a more powerful rocket, India's Chandrayaan-3 out-endured the Luna-25 to execute a textbook landing. Prime Minister Modi is pushing for India's space missions to play a larger role on a world stage dominated by the United States and China. Satellites in low earth orbit are the main focus of global private players, which makes the Aditya-L1 mission a very important project," he said.

Persons: clapped, Luna, Modi, Sankar Subramanian, Somak Raychaudhury, Rama Rao Nidamanuri, Nivedita, Jayshree, William Mallard Organizations: Solar Orbiter, ESA, NASA, Solar, Rights, Indian Space Research, Elon, SpaceX, Indian Institute of Space Science, Technology, ISRO, Thomson Locations: India, Russia, United States, China, Bengaluru

☆ Images from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft reveal tiny flares shooting from a 'hole' in the sun. They could explain how the sun blasts Earth with charged particles.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AdvertisementAdvertisementPicoflares could be the source of the solar wind that's blasting EarthAn animation of the solar wind shows particles streaming from the sun towards Earth. That stream, called the "solar wind," gets supercharged when coronal holes or big solar flares are pointed at our planet. Seeing the sun up close, at smaller scales, could reveal its secretsImages from the Solar Orbiter are the closest ever taken of the sun. "Jets, in general, have previously been observed in the solar corona," Chitta, who led the Solar Orbiter study and a team at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, told Space.com. NASA/SDONASA and the ESA launched Solar Orbiter in 2020, with a goal of studying these winds at their source.

Persons: Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, NASA's Parker, Chitta, Space.com, it's, Andrei Zhukov Organizations: Service, Orbiter, Solar Orbiter, NASA Solar Dynamics, NASA, Lights, EUI Team, ESA, CSL, MPS, UCL, Probe, Jets, Solar, Max Planck Institute, Solar System Research, European Space Agency, Royal Observatory of Locations: Wall, Silicon, Royal Observatory of Belgium, Brussels

☆ India rolls out its first rover on the lunar surface after historic landing
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the lunar surface near the moon's south pole on Wednesday. The historic occasion marked the country as a global space power and only the fourth nation to achieve a lunar landing. Chandrayaan-3 has already returned several images and rolled out its Pragyan rover on the lunar surface. Meanwhile, Russia’s Luna 25 lander crashed into the moon, causing experts to question the country’s future lunar ambitions. ConsequencesEmperor penguins rely on sea ice to hatch and raise their chicks, but global warming is diminishing their habitat.

Persons: CNN —, Ray, Russia’s, Bonnie Prince Charlie, “, ”, Barbora Veselá, Apptronik, Sergio Pitamitz, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, NASA, SpaceX, International, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Ray Imaging, ISRO India, University of Dundee, Solar Orbiter, —, CNN Space, Science Locations: United States, Russia, Japan, Denmark, United Kingdom, Austin , Texas, Tennessee, Monterey , California

☆ Explainer: What is India's next space mission after moon landing?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Amit Dave Acquire Licensing RightsBENGALURU, Aug 25 (Reuters) - On the heels of the success of the Chandrayaan-3 moon landing, India's space agency has set a date for its next mission - this time to study the sun. It aims to study solar winds, which can cause disturbance on earth and are commonly seen as "auroras". In 2019, the government sanctioned the equivalent of about $46 million for the Aditya-L1 mission. The Indian space agency has earned a reputation for world-beating cost competitiveness in space engineering that executives and planners expect will boost its now-privatised space industry. The Chandrayaan-3 mission, which landed a spacecraft on the lunar south pole, had a budget of about $75 million.

Persons: Amit Dave, Joseph, Louis Lagrange, Nivedita, Giles Elgood Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Indian Space Research Organisation, European Space Agency, NASA, Orbiter, ISRO, Thomson Locations: Gujarat Science City, Ahmedabad, India, Sriharikota, French, Bengaluru

☆ Solar Orbiter observes jets of material escaping the sun
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —The Solar Orbiter mission has discovered jets of material rapidly releasing from the sun’s outer atmosphere. An artist's concept shows the Solar Orbiter spacecraft circling the sun. The advanced instruments aboard Solar Orbiter, as well as NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, are helping to unlock the biggest mysteries that remain about the sun. The sun’s magnetic field is so massive that it stretches beyond Pluto, providing a pathway for solar wind to travel directly across the solar system. Solar Orbiter works in tandem with Parker Solar Probe, which is orbiting the sun on a seven-year mission after launching in August 2018.

Persons: “, ”, Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, Max Planck, NASA’s Parker, Andrei Zhukov, ESA’s Daniel Müller, Parker Organizations: CNN, Orbiter, NASA, European Space Agency, Solar, ESA, Max, Max Planck Institute, Solar System Research, Probe, Space, Royal Observatory of, Solar Orbiter, Parker Locations: Germany, Royal Observatory of Belgium

☆ Sun-observing spacecraft sheds light on the solar wind's origin
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The sun as seen by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft in extreme ultraviolet light in this mosaic of 25 individual images taken on March 7, 2023, by the high resolution telescope of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument. New observations by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft may provide an answer. "Unlike the wind on Earth that circulates the globe, solar wind is ejected outward into interplanetary space," Chitta said. "Earth and the other planets in the solar system whiz through the solar wind as they orbit around the sun. "This finding is important as it sheds more light on the physical mechanism of the solar wind generation," said solar physicist and study co-author Andrei Zhukov of the Royal Observatory of Belgium.

Persons: Lakshmi Pradeep Chitta, Max Planck, Chitta, Andrei Zhukov, Eugene Parker, Zhukov, Will Dunham, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Solar Orbiter, Solar, Max Planck Institute, Solar System Research, European Space Agency, NASA, Orbiter, Royal Observatory of, Thomson Locations: WASHINGTON, Germany, U.S, Royal Observatory of Belgium, American

☆ The sun’s activity is peaking sooner than expected
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Every 11 years or so, the sun experiences periods of low and high solar activity, which is associated with the amount of sunspots on its surface. Over the course of a solar cycle, the sun will transition from a calm to an intense and active period. During the peak of activity, called solar maximum, the sun’s magnetic poles flip. A solar activity spikeThe current solar cycle, known as Solar Cycle 25, has been full of activity, more so than expected. The solar storms generated by the sun can affect electric power grids, GPS and aviation, and satellites in low-Earth orbit.

Persons: ”, Mark Miesch, “, Alex Young, ” Miesch, Scott McIntosh, Robert Leamon, Leamon, Miesch, Young, auroras, Bill Murtagh, ” Murtagh, NASA’s Parker, “ We’ve Organizations: CNN, National Oceanic, Prediction, NASA's Solar Dynamics, NASA, SpaceX, Heliophysics, Goddard Space Flight, GPS, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Goddard Planetary Heliophysics, University of Maryland, College Park, American University, Dynamics, Geological Survey, Probe Locations: Boulder , Colorado, Greenbelt , Maryland, Baltimore County, New Mexico , Missouri, North Carolina, California, United States, England, United Kingdom, Alaska, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Scandinavia, Michigan, Upper Midwest, Pacific, Quebec

☆ First mission to ‘touch’ the sun catches the solar wind
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The slower solar wind, located in the same plane of the solar system as Earth, flows at a calmer 249 miles per second (400 kilometers per second). This flip causes the coronal holes to appear across the sun’s surface and release bursts of solar wind directly toward Earth. JHU Applied Physics Laboratory/NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterUnderstanding the source of the solar wind can help scientists better predict space weather and solar storms that can affect Earth. Fortunately, Parker Solar Probe and a separate mission, Solar Orbiter, are perfectly poised to observe the sun’s powerful, dynamic forces at play. “There was some consternation at the beginning of the solar probe mission that we’re going to launch this thing right into the quietest, most dull part of the solar cycle,” Bale said.

Persons: Eugene Parker, Parker, ”, James Drake, “ That’s, Stuart D, Bale, ” Parker, ” Bale Organizations: CNN, Parker, Probe, JHU, Physics Laboratory, Space, University of Maryland, College Park, University of California, Orbiter, Parker Solar Probe Locations: Berkeley

☆ Solar telescope’s images reveal the sun’s surface like never before
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —New images of the sun’s surface captured by a powerful ground-based solar telescope have revealed sunspots and other features in unprecedented detail. The eight images, released on May 19, were taken using the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, a 4-meter (13.1-foot) telescope located on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Although the sun is becoming increasingly active as the July 2025 solar maximum — the peak of the sun’s 11-year cycle — draws closer, the photos showcase the quieter aspects of the solar surface. Bright hot plasma flows upward on the sun’s surface, while darker, cooler plasma flows down. NSF/AURA/NSOThe Inouye Solar Telescope also glimpsed “light bridges,” bright solar features that span the darkest region of a sunspot.

☆ NASA footage reveals 4 types of solar eruptions and 'holes' that could affect Earth as the sun grows more active
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The sun is slamming Earth with solar flares and high-speed eruptions of plasma. Solar flares can have the power of 1 billion hydrogen bombsA solar flare erupts — the bright flash on the bottom right of the sun — on March 28, 2023. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the upper right – on March 3, 2023. CMEs are common culprits of solar storms on Earth, since they can send a powerful flood of solar particles washing over the planet. Coronal holes open a highway for solar windA video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the massive hole in the sun's atmosphere.

☆ 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.

Search resuls for: "Solar Orbiter"

15 mentions found