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13.11.2025 - 18:46 [ Harvard University ]

More than a planetary fender-bender: New study finds Earth collided with dense interstellar cloud, possibly affecting life on planet

(June 10, 2024)

Evidence of a long-ago collision involving the Earth was there in the form of specific radioactive isotopes deposited across the Earth and Moon. There were, however, skeptics.

But now researchers have tracked the sun’s path through the Milky Way back to a crash 2 to 3 million years ago with a dense interstellar cloud. The event was so violent it appears to have collapsed the sun’s protective bubble around the solar system and possibly even affected life on Earth.

(…)

“We don’t often discuss the impact of astrophysics on Earth because the astronomical timescales are very long, and the human species emerged on Earth just a few million years ago,” Loeb said. “But a few million years ago there was the potential for us to be passing through a very dense cloud. We didn’t work out the biological implications, but it’s clear that if you shrink the heliosphere to within the orbit of the Earth around the sun, we are not protected anymore. It could have significant implications for life on Earth.”

13.11.2025 - 17:36 [ Harvard University ]

Detailed understanding of reduced geoeffectiveness of solar cycle 24 in association with geomagnetic storms

(May 2025)

Solar Cycle 24, the weakest in over a century, exhibited significant deviations from previous cycles, beginning with a prolonged minimum, weak polar fields, and asynchronous polar field reversal, leading to hemispheric asymmetry. Sunspot activity declined by approximately 30% compared to Cycle 23, while the overall occurrence rate of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) decreased, although some studies suggest that the rate of halo CMEs relative to total CMEs may have remained relatively stable. This study investigates the impact of weaker solar activity on geomagnetic storm dynamics by analyzing CME properties, solar wind conditions, and their influence on magnetospheric energy transfer. Key findings indicate that a lower heliospheric pressure in Cycle 24 caused CMEs to expand more than in Cycle 23, altering energy transfer to Earth‘s magnetosphere.

13.11.2025 - 17:34 [ SkyandTelescope.org ]

The Weakest Solar Cycle in 100 Years

(July 24, 2013)

The Sun is acting weird. It typically puts on a pageant of magnetic activity every 11 years for aurora watchers and sungazers alike, but this time it overslept. When it finally woke up (a year late), it gave the weakest performance in 100 years.

What’s even weirder is that scientists, who aren’t usually shy about tossing hypotheses about, are at a loss for a good explanation.

13.11.2025 - 17:25 [ Cairo University / Researchgate.net ]

The Shrinking of the Heliosphere Due to Reduced Solar Wind

(December 2009)

Abstract. The heliosphere is the space within which the solar wind dominates and the solar interplanetary magnetic field prevails. Its boundary is determined by the balance between stellar and solar winds. Owing to the present reduction in the solar wind pressure, one would expect that the stellar wind would push the heliosphere inward leading to its shrinkage. In this paper we calculate the extent of the heliosphere at different solar wind status. Backward estimation of the extent of the heliosphere since 1890 is done. It is found that the heliosphere oscillated between 75 and 125 AU between 1890 – 2010. Most important is the forecast of the shrinkage and oscillations of the heliosphere and their implications on the earth. The shrinkage of the heliosphere would allow more invasions of cosmic rays to the earth and planets, increased cloud cover and a cooler Earth.

(…)

1.4 Prediction of the State of solar Activity During The Next Few Decades

Weak solar cycles occur at the bottom of Wolf-Gleissberg cycles. They tend to occur in series of 3-4 cycles. A single weak cycle also occurs in between the two maximums of Wolf-Gleissberg cycle. Since the last weak solar cycles occurred around 1900 while the previous ones occurred around 1800 then the newly started cycle 24 should be a weak solar cycle. However, owing to the 200-years de Verie cycle of the sun, it is more likely that the status of the coming solar activity would be something like those weak cycles around 1800 as shown in Fig 1. Svalgaard (2005) also predicted that cycle 24 would be the lowest so far in the past 100 years with the maximum sunspot number around 75.

13.11.2025 - 16:14 [ NASA Goddard / Youtube ]

11 Years Charting Edge of Solar System

Jun 11, 2020
Far, far beyond the orbits of the planets lie the hazy outlines of the magnetic bubble in space that we call home.

This is the heliosphere, the vast bubble that is generated by the Sun’s magnetic field and envelops all the planets. The borders of this cosmic bubble are not fixed. In response to the Sun’s gasps and sighs, they shrink and stretch over the years.

Now, for the first time, scientists have used an entire solar cycle of data from NASA’s IBEX spacecraft to study how the heliosphere changes over time. Solar cycles last roughly 11 years, as the Sun swings from seasons of high to low activity, and back to high again. With IBEX’s long record, scientists were eager to examine how the Sun’s mood swings play out at the edge of the heliosphere. The results show the shifting outer heliosphere in great detail, deftly sketch the heliosphere’s shape — a matter of debate in recent years, and hint at processes behind one of its most puzzling features. These findings, along with a newly fine-tuned data set, are published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplements on June 10, 2020.

13.11.2025 - 02:26 [ Eos.org ]

A Weak Spot in Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Going from Bad to Worse

(November 10, 2025)

The observations by the European Space Agency’s Swarm trio of satellites found that Earth’s already weak magnetic field over the South Atlantic Ocean—a region known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA)—is getting worse and that it has grown by an area half the size of continental Europe since 2014. At the same time, a region over Canada where the field is particularly strong has shrunk, while another strong field region in Siberia has grown, the measurements show.

02.03.2025 - 04:27 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

PUNCH – Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere

Key Questions

The PUNCH mission will use four suitcase-sized satellites to observe the Sun and its environment. Working together, the four PUNCH satellites will create a combined field of view and map the region where the Sun’s corona (or outer atmosphere) transitions to the solar wind (the constant outflow of material from the Sun).

The PUNCH mission will answer questions about:

How the Sun’s atmosphere transitions to the solar wind.
How structures in the solar wind are created.
How these processes affect the solar system.

02.03.2025 - 04:24 [ Astrnomy.com ]

NASA will soon launch PUNCH to study how the Sun influences the space around us

On March 2, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission into low Earth orbit. From this location, its four satellites will have nearly constant views of the Sun to help researchers answer questions about how activity near our star propagates through the inner solar system, influencing the space weather we experience here on Earth.

31.01.2025 - 01:00 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

SPHEREx

About the mission

Launch date: Late February 2025

The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) is a planned two-year mission that will survey the sky in optical as well as near-infrared light which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions. Astronomers will use the mission to gather data on more than 450 million galaxies, as well as, more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way.

31.01.2025 - 00:30 [ National Aeronautics and Space Administration ]

NASA to Preview Sky-Mapping Space Telescope Ahead of Launch

NASA will host a news conference at 12 p.m. EST Friday, Jan. 31, to discuss a new telescope that will improve our understanding of how the universe evolved and search for key ingredients for life in our galaxy.

Agency experts will preview NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission, which will help scientists better understand the structure of the universe, how galaxies form and evolve, and the origins and abundance of water. Launch is targeted for no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 27.

21.10.2023 - 21:45 [ CNN ]

Psyche mission launches as NASA’s first trip to a metal world

(October 13, 2023)

To accomplish the rest of the mission, the van-size spacecraft will rely on its new solar electric propulsion system, powered by Hall-effect thrusters, Oh said. The thrusters will utilize the spacecraft’s large solar arrays and “use electricity to ionize xenon gas and accelerate those charged ions through an electric field to very, very high speeds,” Oh said. (…)

Also along for the ride is the Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration, or DSOC. Occurring during the first two years of the journey to Psyche, it will be NASA’s most distant experiment of high-bandwidth laser communications, testing the sending and receiving of data to and from Earth using an invisible near-infrared laser.

01.07.2023 - 17:20 [ Nature.com ]

Giant gravitational waves: why scientists are so excited

On 29 June, four separate teams of scientists made an announcement1–4 that promises to shake up astrophysics: they had seen strong hints of very long gravitational waves warping the Galaxy.

Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time that are generated when large masses accelerate. They were first detected in 2015, but the latest evidence hints at ‘monster’ ripples with wavelengths of 0.3 parsecs (1 light year) or more; the waves detected until now have wavelengths of tens to hundreds of kilometres.

Here Nature reports what these monster gravitational waves could mean for our understanding of the cosmos, and how the field could evolve.

01.07.2023 - 17:05 [ New York Times ]

The Cosmos Is Thrumming With Gravitational Waves, Astronomers Find

(June 28, 2023)

The scientists strongly suspect that these gravitational waves are the collective echo of pairs of supermassive black holes — thousands of them, some as massive as a billion suns, sitting at the hearts of ancient galaxies up to 10 billion light-years away — as they slowly merge and generate ripples in space-time.

“I like to think of it as a choir, or an orchestra,” said Xavier Siemens, a physicist at Oregon State University who is part of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves, or NANOGrav, collaboration, which led the effort. Each pair of supermassive black holes is generating a different note, Dr. Siemens said, “and what we’re receiving is the sum of all those signals at once.”

01.07.2023 - 16:50 [ Institute of Physics - IOP.org ]

Searching for the Nano-Hertz Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data Release I

(Published 29 June 2023)

Observing and timing a group of millisecond pulsars with high rotational stability enables the direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs). The GW signals can be identified from the spatial correlations encoded in the times-of-arrival of widely spaced pulsar-pairs. The Chinese Pulsar Timing Array (CPTA) is a collaboration aiming at the direct GW detection with observations carried out using Chinese radio telescopes. This short article serves as a „table of contents“ for a forthcoming series of papers related to the CPTA Data Release 1 (CPTA DR1) which uses observations from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. (…)

A Pulsar Timing Array (PTA; Foster & Backer 1990) is an array of pulsars, which are regularly observed. The times-of-arrival (TOAs) are measured for pulses that we see beams of electromagnetic waves emitted by the pulsars sweeping over the Earth. As the directions of the radiation beam and the pulsar rotational axis do not coincide, we observe this radiation as regular pulses synchronized to the pulsar rotation (Gold 1969).

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.

22.09.2021 - 19:40 [ ORF ]

Riesiger Hohlraum im All entdeckt

Bei der Erstellung dreidimensionaler Karten in der Milchstraße haben Astrophysiker und Astrophysikerinnen einen riesigen Hohlraum entdeckt. Das kugelförmige Gebilde hat einen Durchmesser von rund 500 Lichtjahren.

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.

10.07.2021 - 22:00 [ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie ]

Neu entdeckte Eis-Eigenschaften zeigen, wie im Weltraum organische Moleküle entstehen könnten

In einer Reihe von Experimenten präparierten die Forscher zunächst einen mehrschichtigen Wassereis-„Kern“ und legten dann, bei einer Temperatur von 6 Kelvin, unterschiedlich dicke Kohlenmonoxid-Eisschichten darauf. Anschließend erwärmten sie die Probe auf 20 Kelvin und beobachteten die ganze Zeit sorgfältig die Infrarotspektren.

08.07.2021 - 19:33 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

Der Sternenhimmel gehört uns allen – und nicht Elon Musk und Jeff Bezos

Bislang sendet die deutsche Politik das falsche Signal: Anstatt Sternenhimmel, Wissenschaft und den Zugang zum Weltall zu schützen, fördert sie den Zugang zum Satelliteninternet, um die Löcher in der deutschen Breitbandlandschaft zu stopfen.

29.06.2021 - 21:31 [ BBC ]

Rare black hole and neutron star collisions sighted twice in 10 days

When objects as massive as these collide they create ripples in the fabric of space called gravitational waves. And it is these ripples that the researchers have detected.

17.04.2021 - 04:46 [ CNN ]

Giant radio pulses and X-ray surges are coming from the Crab Nebula

The light from this supernova first reached Earth in July 1054 and was witnessed by astronomers in Japan and China.

When the star exploded, it formed a neutron star, which is the dense core of a star that is about the size of a city like Chicago. This became a pulsar, or rapidly spinning neutron star, that is now located in the nebula.

07.04.2021 - 21:33 [ France24 ]

Radio telescope reveals thousands of star-forming galaxies in early Universe

The LOFAR telescope combines signals from a huge network of more than 70,000 individual antennas in countries from Ireland to Poland, linked by a high-speed fiber optic network.

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.

10.03.2021 - 18:40 [ Independent.co.uk ]

Scientists detect radio blast coming from further away in space than ever before

More distant quasars have been found in the past. But the new one is notable because it is “radio-loud” – it is the first time that radio jets have been able to be detected from such a distant object.

Quasars are among the brightest objects in the universe. They are found at the centre of some galaxies nd are powered by supermassive black holes – when the surrounding gas is eaten by the black hole, it throws out energy that travels across the universe and can be studied by scientists.

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.

27.09.2020 - 15:59 [ Ansa.it ]

Italy, USA sign moon-exploration agreement

Italy and the United States on Friday signed a declaration of intent for exploration of the moon linked to the Artemis programme.
The deal was signed in Rome by Cabinet Secretary Riccardo Fraccaro in video link with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

15.09.2020 - 12:40 [ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ]

Zum Venustransit: Leben in Säurewolken?

(07.06.2004)

Andere Astrobiologen haben dagegen noch grundsätzlichere Bedenken. Wenn es die venerischen Luftbazillen wirklich gäbe, so ihr Einwand, hätten sie oder ihre Stoffwechselprodukte in den Meßdaten der Venussonden schon lange auffallen müssen. „Wo Leben existieren kann, neigt es zu Dominanz“, sagt etwa der Nasa-Astrobiologe Chris McKay. „Wenn ich aus meinem Fenster blicke, sehe ich überall Grün – warum, bitte, sind die Venuswolken nicht grün?“

15.09.2020 - 12:32 [ BBC ]

Venus clouds ‚might harbour life‘

(25.05.2004)

„Current theories suggest that Venus and the Earth may have started out alike. There might have been a lot of water on Venus and there might have been a lot of carbon dioxide on Earth,“ Professor Ingersoll explained.

But all that was to change. On Earth, life in the oceans took in carbon dioxide and turned it into limestone. On Venus, 30% closer to the Sun, any oceans boiled away and the water vapour added to the runaway greenhouse effect.

15.09.2020 - 11:57 [ Harold Morowitz and Carl Sagan / Nature.com ]

Life in the Clouds of Venus?

(16.09.1967)

WHILE the surface conditions of Venus make the hypothesis of life there implausible, the clouds of Venus are a different story altogether. As was pointed out some years ago, water, carbon dioxide and sunlight—the prerequisites for photosynthesis—are plentiful in the vicinity of the clouds. Since then, good additional evidence has been provided that the clouds are composed of ice crystals at their tops and it seems likely that there are water droplets toward their bottoms. Independent evidence for water vapour also exists5.

15.09.2020 - 11:56 [ ScienceDirect.com ]

Water vapor in the atmosphere of Venus

(December 1972)

Infrared spectra of Venus produced by a Fourier spectrometer flown aboard the NASA CV 990 jet aircraft were analyzed for water-vapor content by comparison with calculated model spectra. The reflecting layer model gave an abundance of 1.6 ± 0.4 μ of precipitable water for the two-way transmission of the Venus atmosphere. The scattering model resulted in a value of 0.25 ± 0.10 μ of water per scattering mean free path.

15.09.2020 - 11:53 [ New York Times ]

Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its Clouds

(14.09.2020)

“This is an astonishing and ‘out of the blue’ finding,” said Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an author of the papers (one published in Nature Astronomy and another submitted to the journal Astrobiology). “It will definitely fuel more research into the possibilities for life in Venus’s atmosphere.”