Archiv: solar systems


04.10.2021 - 07:04 [ National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / SciTechdaily.com ]

Interplay Between Magnetic Force and Gravity in Massive Star Formation

(September 26, 2021)

The magnetic field is part of one of the four fundamental forces in nature. It plays a vital role in everyday life, from producing electricity in hydroelectric power plants to diagnosing diseases in medicine. Historically, the Earth’s magnetic field served as a compass for travelers before modern technology was available. Crucially for life, the Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield protecting us from charged particles emanating from the Sun, which are accelerated by the Sun’s magnetic field. Removing this shield would very likely extinguish life on Earth.

10.08.2021 - 12:48 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

NASA Team Studies Middle-aged Sun by Tracking Motion of Mercury

(18.01.2018)

Like the waistband of a couch potato in midlife, the orbits of planets in our solar system are expanding. It happens because the Sun’s gravitational grip gradually weakens as our star ages and loses mass.

10.08.2021 - 12:44 [ Forbes ]

Earth Is Drifting Away From The Sun, And So Are All The Planets

(Jan 3, 2019)

Deep inside the Sun, the process of nuclear fusion occurs. Every second, the Sun emits some 3.846 × 1026 joules of energy, which are released via the conversion of mass into energy in the core. Einstein‘s E = mc2 is the root cause, nuclear fusion is the process, and the continuous emission of energy from the Sun is the result. This energy is the underlying process that powers practically every biologically interesting process occurring on Earth.

15.07.2021 - 08:30 [ University of Maryland / ScienceDaily.com ]

Space mission first to observe key interaction between magnetic fields of Earth and sun

Date: May 12, 2016

Source: University of Maryland

Summary: Physicists have now provided the first major results of NASA‘s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, including an unprecedented look at the interaction between the magnetic fields of Earth and the sun. The article describes the first direct and detailed observation of a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection, which occurs when two opposing magnetic field lines break and reconnect with each other, releasing massive amounts of energy.

15.07.2021 - 08:10 [ NationalGeographic.com ]

Surprise: Solar System „Force Field“ Shrinks Fast

(October 1, 2010)

It‘s cold, dusty, and bereft of planets, but the outskirts of our solar system are anything but dull, according to increasing evidence from NASA‘s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) craft.

As charged particles flow out from the sun, they eventually bump up against interstellar medium—the relatively empty areas between stars. These interactions „inflate“ a protective bubble that shields Earth and the entire solar system from potentially harmful cosmic rays (solar system pictures).

15.07.2021 - 08:01 [ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ]

The solar wind bubble that protects Earth has been mapped for the first time

Using data IBEX collected on ENAs as it charted just one 11-year solar cycle, the time between shifts in the sun’s magnetic field, researchers built a three-dimensional map of the entire heliosphere, which Reisenfeld says shields Earth and other planets from harmful radiation.

“Our Earth gets bombarded by cosmic rays, galactic cosmic rays all the time,” he says. These rays can subtly affect airplanes that fly near the poles, often on trips between Europe or Asia and the US.

Scientists say that to study other planet’s astrospheres, which is what heliospheres are called when they surround other stars, we must first understand our own.

30.03.2021 - 21:48 [ France24 ]

Comet ‚most pristine‘ object from outer space seen in Solar System

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, an international team describe how 2I/Borisov‘s coma — the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet — polarised light at a higher rate than typical comets.

21.02.2021 - 03:32 [ NASA.gov ]

NASA Missions Make Unprecedented Map of Sun’s Magnetic Field

They’ll have a chance to take that step forward soon: A re-flight of the mission was just greenlit by NASA. Though the launch date isn’t yet set, the team plans to use the same instrument but with a new technique to measure a much broader swath of the Sun.

“Instead of just measuring the magnetic fields along the very narrow strip, we want to scan it across the target and make a two-dimensional map,” McKenzie said.

20.02.2021 - 12:20 [ Jet Propulsion Laboratory / NASA.gov ]

Using Light to Study Planets

In this activity, students will build a spectrometer using basic materials to observe the light emitted and absorbed by several sources. This will be used as a model for how NASA uses spectroscopy to determine the nature of elements found on Earth and other planets. For higher grades, this activity can also be used to discuss advanced spectroscopic topics, such as how NASA research is advancing spectroscopic techniques to teach us more about plant life on Earth.

27.11.2020 - 22:14 [ France24 ]

Cyprus rocky testing ground for Mars

The CSEO is taking part in a major international research project on Mars, in collaboration with three other European countries as well as the United States.

04.11.2020 - 18:31 [ MIT Technology Review ]

We just found a source for one of the most mysterious phenomena in astronomy

Spoiler alert: it’s not aliens. Two new studies published in Nature today strongly suggest that magnetars—highly magnetized neutron stars—are one source of FRBs. The studies also indicate that these bursts are probably much more common than we imagined.

15.09.2020 - 16:58 [ Newsweek ]

NASA Shows Einstein Was Right: Our Sun Is Losing Mass – and Its Grip on Our Solar System

(19.01.2018)

As our sun gets older, it‘s losing mass, and so its gravitational pull becomes weaker. As a result, the orbits of all the planets in our solar system are expanding, not unlike „the waistband of a couch potato in midlife,“ according to a new NASA press statement.

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has shown that the aging sun is behaving according to Albert Einstein‘s theory of general relativity.

15.09.2020 - 16:53 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

NASA Team Studies Middle-aged Sun by Tracking Motion of Mercury

(18.01.2018)

Like the waistband of a couch potato in midlife, the orbits of planets in our solar system are expanding. It happens because the Sun’s gravitational grip gradually weakens as our star ages and loses mass.

15.09.2020 - 16:49 [ Sparkonit.com ]

The Orbits Of All The Planets In Our Solar System Are Expanding As The Sun Gets Older, Study On Mercury’s Orbit Reveals

(25.01.2018)

“Mercury is the perfect test object for these experiments because it is so sensitive to the gravitational effect and activity of the Sun,” explained Antonio Genova, the lead author of the study and a MIT researcher working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Researchers were able to make these calculations from the data gathered by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft which made three ‘flybys’ of Mercury in 2008 and 2009 and orbited Mercury between March 2011 and April 2015 before it crashed into Mercury in 2015, Mail noted.

15.09.2020 - 10:42 [ Washington University in St. Louis ]

Meteorite study suggests Earth may have always been wet

(27.08.2020)

A new study finds that Earth’s water may have come from materials that were present in the inner solar system at the time the planet formed — instead of far-reaching comets or asteroids delivering such water.

15.09.2020 - 10:24 [ Science Magazine ]

Earth’s water may have been inherited from material similar to enstatite chondrite meteorites

(28.08.2020)

The origin of Earth’s water remains unknown. Enstatite chondrite (EC) meteorites have similar isotopic composition to terrestrial rocks and thus may be representative of the material that formed Earth. ECs are presumed to be devoid of water because they formed in the inner Solar System. Earth’s water is therefore generally attributed to the late addition of a small fraction of hydrated materials, such as carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, which originated in the outer Solar System where water was more abundant. We show that EC meteorites contain sufficient hydrogen to have delivered to Earth at least three times the mass of water in its oceans.

09.08.2020 - 08:07 [ journals.plos.org ]

The Earth’s magnetic field in Jerusalem during the Babylonian destruction: A unique reference for field behavior and an anchor for archaeomagnetic dating

Archaeomagnetism, the application of paleomagnetic methods to archaeological materials, is interdisciplinary not only in its methods but also in its impact. Well-dated archaeological materials are a critical data source for geomagnetic secular variation models [1–6], which are used to explore the dynamic structure of Earth’s core [7, 8], the rates of cosmogenic isotope production in the atmosphere [9–11] and the possible effect of geomagnetism on climate [11–13]. Precise documentation of the ancient field also helps contextualize geomagnetic observations from the modern era, such as the evolution of the South Atlantic Anomaly [14, 15] and the ongoing decline in the field’s intensity [16–18].

09.08.2020 - 08:05 [ Haaretz ]

Ruins of Ancient Jerusalem Help Unravel Enigmas of Earth’s Magnetic Field

Albert Einstein once called the behavior of the magnetic field one of the great mysteries of physics, but understanding and possibly predicting its changes has taken on a new urgency for scientists. The field has lost around 10 percent of its strength since measurements began less than 200 years ago, leading some researchers to question whether we are on the way to a flip in polarity, which would be preceded by a loss of our precious shield against cosmic radiation.

21.06.2020 - 18:44 [ NASA / Twitter ]

There’s a lot to spot in the sky this month. Turn an eye upwards to find:

The Northern Hemisphere’s #SummerSolstice in full swing
The Summer Triangle of stars in the East
Morning planetary views of Mars, Jupiter & Venus

And more!

14.05.2020 - 20:45 [ inverse.com ]

The Sun‘s midlife crisis could be making it stand out in the universe

(30.04.2020)

„The solar dynamo is one of the last unsolved mysteries of solar physics,“ Reinhold says. „We don’t really know why it’s 11 years long, or how it is generated.“

Other stars also run on cycles, but theirs varies from three years to eight years.

Although the researchers aren‘t quite sure what makes the Sun so unique, they have a few possible explanations.

14.05.2020 - 20:37 [ Forbes ]

Is Our Sun In A 9,000 Year ‘Feeble Phase?’ Similar Stars Are Five Times More Fickle, Find Scientists

(30.04.2020)

The Sun takes 24.5 days to rotate once around their own axis; the 369 chosen all rotate once every 20-30 days.

“The speed at which a star rotates around its own axis is a crucial variable,” said Prof. Dr. Sami Solanki, director at MPS and co-author of the new paper. “The magnetic field is the driving force responsible for all fluctuations in activity.”

28.03.2020 - 15:18 [ CNN ]

Scientists found a secret in old Voyager 2 data. This is why we need to revisit Uranus and Neptune

„The way in which the sun‘s solar wind interacts with Uranus is unlike any planet we‘ve ever explored,“ DiBraccio said. „We are left with questions regarding to what degree the solar wind affects dynamics at Uranus such as transporting atmospheric particles, transferring energy and even changing the planet‘s climate over time.“

13.03.2020 - 08:57 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

NASA Team Studies Middle-aged Sun by Tracking Motion of Mercury

(18.01.2018)

Like the waistband of a couch potato in midlife, the orbits of planets in our solar system are expanding. It happens because the Sun’s gravitational grip gradually weakens as our star ages and loses mass.

13.03.2020 - 08:53 [ Newsweek ]

NASA Shows Einstein Was Right: Our Sun Is Losing Mass—and Its Grip on Our Solar System

(19.01.2018)

As our sun gets older, it’s losing mass, and so its gravitational pull becomes weaker. As a result, the orbits of all the planets in our solar system are expanding, not unlike „the waistband of a couch potato in midlife,“ according to a new NASA press statement.

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has shown that the aging sun is behaving according to Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

22.01.2020 - 22:45 [ Forbes.com ]

Is Earth’s Magnetic Shield Eroding?

(29.3.2018)

The strength of Earth’s main magnetic field is currently about 29.5 microteslas, down 5 microteslas, or 14 percent from its strength three centuries ago.

We know this. There is no question of this.

22.01.2020 - 22:02 [ Dr. Jessie Christiansen ‏/ Twitter ]

I have always been interested in galactic archaeology, but I don‘t think this is what they meant. Did you know that dinosaurs lived on the other side of the Galaxy?

(28.08.2019)

02.01.2020 - 17:17 [ CNN ]

Why the world is waiting for Betelgeuse to go supernova

(01.01.2020)

If Betelgeuse does go supernova, it will be the brightest star in the sky for many months. (Except for the sun, of course.) It will even be visible during the day.

02.01.2020 - 16:57 [ Dr. Jessie Christiansen ‏/ Twitter ]

I have always been interested in galactic archaeology, but I don‘t think this is what they meant. Did you know that dinosaurs lived on the other side of the Galaxy?

(28.08.2019)

02.01.2020 - 16:39 [ HNGN.com ]

Sun’s Magnetic Field To ‚Flip‘ Causing ‚A Ripple Effect‘ Past Pluto (VIDEO)

(06.08.2013)

The polar switch also affects cosmic rays, which can endanger satellites and astronauts. Disturbances in the rays could even affect Earth’s climate.

The sheet acts as a „shield“ against these rays, and a wavy current sheet can be even more effective.

02.01.2020 - 14:36 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Solar Activity Forecast for Next Decade Favorable for Exploration

(12.06.2019)

The Sun‘s activity rises and falls in an 11-year cycle. The forecast for the next solar cycle says it will be the weakest of the last 200 years. The maximum of this next cycle – measured in terms of sunspot number, a standard measure of solar activity level – could be 30 to 50% lower than the most recent one.

02.01.2020 - 13:39 [ Harvard.edu ]

Magnetic Flux Ropes in the Martian Atmosphere: Global Characteristics

(März 2004)

We report observations of magnetic fields amplitude, which consist of a series of individual spikes in the Martian atmosphere. A minimum variance analysis shows that these spikes form twisted cylindrical filaments. These small diameter magnetic filaments are commonly called magnetic flux ropes. We examine the global characteristics of magnetic flux ropes, which are observed on 5% of the elliptical orbits of Mars Global Surveyor.

02.01.2020 - 13:33 [ European Geosciences Union / Copernikus Gesellschaft ]

MESSENGER Observations of Magnetic Flux Ropes in Mercury’s Plasma Sheet

(2014)

A superposed epoch analysis demonstrates that the magnetic structure of the flux ropes issimilar to what is observed at Earth, but the timescales are 40 times faster at Mercury.

02.01.2020 - 13:24 [ University College London ]

Magnetic Rope observed for the first time between Saturn and the Sun

(06.07.2016)

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004, and after many years analyzing the data collected, Cassini has observed the first FTE at Saturn.

02.01.2020 - 13:20 [ ScienceMag.org ]

Magnetic Reconnection in the Near Venusian Magnetotail

(04.05.2012)

Observations with the Venus Express magnetometer and low-energy particle detector revealed magnetic field and plasma behavior in the near-Venus wake that is symptomatic of magnetic reconnection, a process that occurs in Earth’s magnetotail but is not expected in the magnetotail of a nonmagnetized planet such as Venus.

27.12.2019 - 21:06 [ CNN ]

A giant red star is acting weird and scientists think it may be about to explode

The red supergiant would glow a vibrant blue for three of four months, and would take about a year to fade out.

„It would be a really bright star visible in the daytime,“ Guinan said.

There wouldn‘t be any direct danger to life on earth, but ultraviolet radiation from the celestial blast could scorch ozone in our atmosphere.

15.11.2019 - 15:31 [ Carnegie Science / Youtube ]

Hypervelocity star

(12.11.2019)

The artist impression of the ejection mechanism by the supermassive black hole. Credit: James Josephides (Swinburne Astronomy Productions)

15.11.2019 - 15:21 [ Carnegie Science ]

Runaway star was ejected from the “heart of darkness”

“My favorite part of this discovery is thinking about where this star came from and where it‘s going,” said Ji. “It was born in one of the craziest places in the universe, near a supermassive black hole with lots of other nearby star friends; but it‘s going to leave our galaxy and die all alone, out in the middle of nowhere. Quite a fall from grace.”

15.11.2019 - 15:06 [ CBS News ]

Supermassive black hole throws star out of Milky Way galaxy at speed of 3.7 million mph

Five million years ago, when humanity‘s ancestors were just learning to walk upright, a star was ejected from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, at a staggering 3.7 million mph. This month, a group of researchers spotted the superfast star traveling relatively close to Earth.

15.11.2019 - 15:00 [ businessinsider.fr ]

A NASA scientist‘s incredible animation shows how dinosaurs roamed the Earth on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy

Our sun orbits the galaxy‘s center, so many dinosaurs roamed the Earth while the planet was on the other side of the Milky Way.

Our solar system‘s orbit keeps us just the right distance from the galaxy‘s chaotic center for life to exist.

15.11.2019 - 12:27 [ Dr. Jessie Christiansen ‏/ Twitter ]

I have always been interested in galactic archaeology, but I don‘t think this is what they meant. Did you know that dinosaurs lived on the other side of the Galaxy?

15.10.2019 - 18:46 [ CNN ]

Interstellar comet fits right in with our solar system

At the end of August, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov spotted a new comet while at the MARGO observatory in Crimea. The amateur astronomer used a 0.65-meter telescope he built and saw something that resembled a comet with a short tail.

Observations by NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Dynamics Group have supported that …

25.09.2019 - 19:31 [ Forbes.com ]

Is Earth’s Magnetic Shield Eroding?

(29.3.2018)

The strength of Earth’s main magnetic field is currently about 29.5 microteslas, down 5 microteslas, or 14 percent from its strength three centuries ago.

We know this. There is no question of this.

25.09.2019 - 19:23 [ Phys.org ]

Strong planetary magnetic fields like Earth‘s may protect oceans from stellar storms

(14.03.2019)

„Magnetic fields appear to play an essential role in making planets habitable, so I wanted to find out how Earth‘s magnetic field compared to those of other potentially habitable planets,“ she said.

Ms McIntyre said Earth‘s strong magnetic field had probably played an important role in protecting the atmosphere from the solar wind and keeping the planet wet and habitable.

„Venus and Mars have negligible magnetic fields and do not support life, while Earth‘s magnetic field is relatively strong and does,“ she said.

11.08.2019 - 19:02 [ arxiv.org ]

Anomalous post-newtonian terms and the secular increase of the astronomical unit

(14.10.2018)

In 2004 Krasinsky and Brumberg indicated that the analysis of all available radiometric measurements of distances between the Earth and the planets, and also the observations of martian landers and orbiters, showed that the Astronomical Unit is increasing at a rate 15 ± 4 meters per century [14]. Later on, a more careful analysis by Standish has shown that the secular rate is closer to 7 ± 2 meters per century [26]. Anyway, this is by far too large to be explained by the loss of solar mass due to solar wind and electromagnetic radiation. An explanation based upon tidal friction caused by the bulge produced by Earth gravity on the Sun has been proposed [17]. However, this model has not been validated and the detailed mechanism for this tidal friction is hypothetical. A secular effect on the eccentricity of planetary motions have been also unveiled by the recent detailed analysis of the Lunar orbit. The secular increase of the eccentricity is very small but, however, is clearly within the range of precision of Lunar laser ranging. This kind of unexplained observations,
after discarding any possible conventional explanation, could give rise to an arena where the status of General Relativity as a complete theory of gravity (at least, at the macroscopic level) could be tested.

In this paper we have assumed that a conventional explanation is not possible and that an extra force term is necessary in order to incorporate this behaviour in the post-newtonian formalism.

11.08.2019 - 18:45 [ Newsweek ]

NASA Shows Einstein Was Right: Our Sun Is Losing Mass—and Its Grip on Our Solar System

(19.01.2018)

As our sun gets older, it‘s losing mass, and so its gravitational pull becomes weaker. As a result, the orbits of all the planets in our solar system are expanding, not unlike „the waistband of a couch potato in midlife,“ according to a new NASA press statement.

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has shown that the aging sun is behaving according to Albert Einstein‘s theory of general relativity.

11.08.2019 - 17:11 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

NASA Team Studies Middle-aged Sun by Tracking Motion of Mercury

(18.01.2018)

Like the waistband of a couch potato in midlife, the orbits of planets in our solar system are expanding. It happens because the Sun’s gravitational grip gradually weakens as our star ages and loses mass.

11.08.2019 - 17:08 [ Sparkonit.com ]

The Orbits Of All The Planets In Our Solar System Are Expanding As The Sun Gets Older, Study On Mercury’s Orbit Reveals

(25.01.2018)

“Mercury is the perfect test object for these experiments because it is so sensitive to the gravitational effect and activity of the Sun,” explained Antonio Genova, the lead author of the study and a MIT researcher working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Researchers were able to make these calculations from the data gathered by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft which made three ‘flybys’ of Mercury in 2008 and 2009 and orbited Mercury between March 2011 and April 2015 before it crashed into Mercury in 2015, Mail noted.

11.08.2019 - 16:58 [ ScientificAmerican.com ]

„Astronomical Unit,“ or Earth-Sun Distance, Gets an Overhaul

(14.09.2012)

Without fanfare, astronomers have redefined one of the most important distances in the Solar System. The astronomical unit (au) — the rough distance from the Earth to the Sun — has been transformed from a confusing calculation into a single number. The new standard, adopted in August by unanimous vote at the International Astronomical Union‘s meeting in Beijing, China, is now 149,597,870,700 meters — no more, no less.

11.08.2019 - 16:51 [ NewScientist.com ]

Why is the Earth moving away from the sun?

(01.06.2009)

It’s not much – just 15 cm per year – but since that’s 100 times greater than the measurement error, something must really be pushing Earth outward. But what?

One idea is that the Sun is losing enough mass, via fusion and the solar wind, to gradually be losing its gravitational grip (see Astronomical unit may need to be redefined). Other possible explanations include a change in the gravitational constant G, the effects of cosmic expansion, and even the influence of dark matter. None have proved satisfactory.

11.08.2019 - 14:14 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

The Space Station Crosses a Spotless Sun

(15.07.2019)

Transiting the Sun is not very unusual for the ISS, which orbits the Earth about every 90 minutes, but getting one‘s timing and equipment just right for a great image is rare. Strangely, besides that fake spot, in this recent two-image composite, the Sun lacked any real sunspots. The featured picture combines two images — one capturing the space station transiting the Sun — and another taken consecutively capturing details of the Sun‘s surface. Sunspots have been rare on the Sun since the dawn of the current Solar Minimum, a period of low solar activity. For reasons not yet fully understood, the number of sunspots occurring during both the previous and current solar minima have been unusually low.

11.08.2019 - 14:03 [ Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) ]

Solar Cycle 25: May Be The Smallest In Over 300 Years

(26.01.2012)

Livingston and Penn provided the first hard estimate of Solar Cycle 25 amplitude based on a physical model. That estimate is 7, which would make it the smallest solar cycle for over 300 years.

This is figure 2 from their paper:

Livingston and Penn have been tracking the decline in sunspot magnetic field, predicting that sunspots will disappear when the umbral magnetic field strength falls below 1,500 gauss, as per this figure from their 2010 paper:

11.08.2019 - 13:58 [ NationalGeographic.com ]

Sun Headed Into Hibernation, Solar Studies Predict: Sunspots may disappear altogether in next cycle.

(14.06.2011)

This time, however, the rush to the poles is more of a crawl, which means we could be headed toward a very weak solar maximum in 2013—and it may delay or even prevent the start of the next solar cycle.

Taken together, the three lines of evidence strongly hint that Solar Cycle 25 may be a bust, the scientists said today during a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

11.08.2019 - 13:45 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

Long Range Solar Forecast: Solar Cycle 25 peaking around 2022 could be one of the weakest in centuries.

(10.05.2006)

How do you observe a belt that plunges 200,000 km below the surface of the sun?

„We do it using sunspots,“ Hathaway explains. Sunspots are magnetic knots that bubble up from the base of the conveyor belt, eventually popping through the surface of the sun. Astronomers have long known that sunspots have a tendency to drift—from mid solar latitudes toward the sun‘s equator. According to current thinking, this drift is caused by the motion of the conveyor belt. „By measuring the drift of sunspot groups,“ says Hathaway, „we indirectly measure the speed of the belt.“

11.08.2019 - 13:22 [ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.gov) ]

Space Weather Impacts On Climate

All weather on Earth, from the surface of the planet out into space, begins with the Sun. Space weather and terrestrial weather (the weather we feel at the surface) are influenced by the small changes the Sun undergoes during its solar cycle.

(…)

The duration of solar minimum may also have an impact on Earth‘s climate. During solar minimum there is a maximum in the amount of Cosmic rays, high energy particles whose source is outside our Solar system, reaching earth. There is a theory that cosmic rays can create nucleation sites in the atmosphere which seed cloud formation and create cloudier conditions. If this were true, then there would be a significant impact on climate, which would be modulated by the 11-year solar cycle.

20.06.2019 - 10:48 [ ABC Australia ]

Our solar system is weird

Saturn is essential for the Grand Tack theory. If there was no Saturn, Jupiter would have stayed close in near the Sun, and some of the super-Earths would have survived, making our solar system just like all those exoplanetary systems out there.

That‘s a pretty sweet explanation of how our solar system came to be so unusual. But is the Grand Tack theory right?

Only time – and observational-data-confirming-or-rejecting-testable-predictions – will tell.

05.06.2019 - 20:29 [ University College London ]

Magnetic Rope observed for the first time between Saturn and the Sun

(06.07.2016)

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004, and after many years analyzing the data collected, Cassini has observed the first FTE at Saturn.

05.06.2019 - 20:27 [ ScienceMag.org ]

Magnetic Reconnection in the Near Venusian Magnetotail

(04.05.2012)

Observations with the Venus Express magnetometer and low-energy particle detector revealed magnetic field and plasma behavior in the near-Venus wake that is symptomatic of magnetic reconnection, a process that occurs in Earth’s magnetotail but is not expected in the magnetotail of a nonmagnetized planet such as Venus.

30.05.2019 - 16:24 [ scitecheuropa.eu ]

Solving a century-long mystery: the origin of galactic cosmic rays

(04.04.2019)

The word ‘astronomy’ means the direct observations of extra-terrestrial objects. This definition is relevant to photons, neutrinos, and gravitational waves, i.e. massless, neutral and stable particles. But for cosmic ray electrons, protons, and nuclei, the term ‘astronomy’ is used with a certain reservation. Because of the deflections of electrically charged particles in the chaotic interstellar and intergalactic magnetic fields, the information about their original directions pointing to the sites of their production is lost. Instead, on the Earth, we detect an (almost) isotropic flux of cosmic rays contributed by a huge number of galactic and extragalactic sources.

30.05.2019 - 16:11 [ arxiv.org ]

Hypothesis: Muon Radiation Dose and Marine Megafaunal Extinction at the end-Pliocene Supernova

(November 2018)

Considerable data and analysis support the detection of one or more supernovae (SNe) at a distance of about 50 pc, ∼2.6 million years ago. This is possibly related to the extinction event around that time and is a member of a series of explosions that formed the Local Bubble in the interstellar medium. We build on previous work, and propagate the muon flux from SN-initiated cosmic rays from the surface to the depths of the ocean. We find that the radiation dose from the muons will exceed the total present surface dose from all sources at depths up to 1 km and will persist for at least the lifetime of marine megafauna. It is reasonable to hypothesize that this increase in radiation load may have contributed to a newly documented marine megafaunal extinction at that time.

30.05.2019 - 15:55 [ New York Times ]

STUDY HINTS EXTINCTIONS STRIKE IN SET INTERVALS

(11. Dezember 1983)

At a conference on mass extinctions, held in August at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Dr. Sepkoski said the timing of these events suggested that “there is indeed a statistically significant periodicity in the observed distribution of events of mass or accelerated extinction over the last 250 million years.“ Search for Answers

He confessed this “stumped“ him and Dr. Raup, saying: “We are aware of no documented process with a cycling time approximately 26 million years. But with that long a cycle, we suspect that the forcing agent will not be terrestrial but rather solar or galactic.“

30.05.2019 - 15:49 [ Harvard.edu ]

Cosmic-ray volleys from the Galactic Center and their recent impact on the earth environment

Authors: Laviolette, P. A.
Journal: Earth, Moon, and Planets (ISSN 0167-9295), vol. 37, March 1987, p. 241-286.

25.05.2019 - 15:17 [ Phys.org ]

Scientists predict sun‘s activity will be weak during next solar cycle

(08.04.2019)

„We expect Solar Cycle 25 will be very similar to Cycle 24: another fairly weak cycle, preceded by a long, deep minimum,“ said panel co-chair Lisa Upton, Ph.D., solar physicist with Space Systems Research Corp. „The expectation that Cycle 25 will be comparable in size to Cycle 24 means that the steady decline in solar cycle amplitude, seen from cycles 21-24, has come to an end and that there is no indication that we are currently approaching a Maunder-type minimum in solar activity.“

25.05.2019 - 15:09 [ NationalGeographic.com ]

Surprise: Solar System „Force Field“ Shrinks Fast

(01.10.2010)

„If we’ve learned anything from IBEX so far, it is that the models that we’re using for interaction of the solar wind with the galaxy were just dead wrong,“ David McComas, principal investigator for the IBEX program, said during a NASA press conference Thursday.

For starters, it’s been assumed that the heliosphere’s expansion and contraction follows the sun’s roughly 11-year activity cycle, during which the flow rate of charged particles, or solar wind, fluctuates.

25.05.2019 - 14:49 [ voyager.jpl.nasa.gov ]

NASA Voyager 2 Could Be Nearing Interstellar Space

(05.10.2018)

NASA‘s Voyager 2 probe, currently on a journey toward interstellar space, has detected an increase in cosmic rays that originate outside our solar system.

25.05.2019 - 14:49 [ scitechdaily.com ]

NASA Voyager 2 Nearing Interstellar Space, Measures Increase in Cosmic Rays

(06.10.2018)

NASA’s Voyager 2 probe, currently on a journey toward interstellar space, has detected an increase in cosmic rays that originate outside our solar system.