Latest news with #solaractivity
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- Science
- South China Morning Post
China to lead global space weather network to monitor dangerous solar eruptions
China has set out to lead the construction of the world's most comprehensive space weather monitoring and warning network, an ambitious ground-based system comprising the largest chain of observatories on Earth, passing through more than 10 countries and regions. The International Meridian Circle Programme (IMCP) is aimed at building a matrix of surveillance stations to better understand and forecast solar activity such as solar storms, which can severely disrupt satellite communications , navigation and power grids on Earth. The programme covers a huge section of the Earth – extending halfway around the planet and forming the largest network of observatories ever built. The project, which according to the IMCP website does not include the United States, was officially launched at a forum during the second Belt and Road Conference on Science and Technology Exchange in Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan province, on June 12. The Post has contacted the scientists in charge of the initiative for comment. During the forum, five more organisations – including the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics, under the International Science Council – as well as research institutes from South Korea, Nigeria, Thailand and Uganda, signed cooperation agreements with the National Space Science Centre (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the lead institute of the project.
Sustainability Times
2 days ago
- Science
- Sustainability Times
Solar Pole Shock: This European Probe Just Captured the First Images Ever of the Sun's South Pole With Stunning Clarity
IN A NUTSHELL 🌞 The Solar Orbiter mission has captured humanity's first-ever images of the sun's mysterious south pole. mission has captured humanity's first-ever images of the sun's mysterious south pole. 🔍 The mission revealed a chaotic magnetic patchwork that is key to understanding the sun's 11-year polarity flip. that is key to understanding the sun's 11-year polarity flip. 🌀 The sun's differential rotation twists its magnetic field, leading to periodic reversals every 11 years. 🚀 The data from the Solar Orbiter will enhance our ability to predict solar cycles and mitigate the effects of solar activity on Earth. The unveiling of the sun's south pole marks a groundbreaking moment in solar exploration. For the first time, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA's Solar Orbiter have managed to capture images of this mysterious region, offering new insights into the sun's complex behavior. This daring mission, which involved maneuvering the spacecraft below the solar system's planetary plane, promises to deepen our understanding of the sun's 11-year polarity flip and its chaotic magnetic field. Scientists are hopeful that these revelations will pave the way for more accurate predictions of solar activity, which is crucial for safeguarding our technological infrastructure. First-Ever Views of the Sun's South Pole The Solar Orbiter mission represents a monumental achievement in space exploration. By swooping 15 degrees below the solar equator, the spacecraft captured humanity's first-ever views of the sun's south pole. This region, previously hidden from direct observation, is now in the spotlight, thanks to the collaborative efforts of ESA and NASA. The mission's success marks the beginning of a new era in solar science, as researchers are now able to study the sun's poles in unprecedented detail. Prof Carole Mundell, ESA's director of science, emphasized the significance of this achievement by stating, 'The sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems.' Understanding these dynamics is crucial, as solar activity can have profound effects on Earth, disrupting satellites and power grids. This mission not only highlights the importance of solar research but also demonstrates the capabilities of modern space technology. Revolutionary Solar Tech Unveiled: Ultra-Efficient Panels with Breakthrough Nanolayers Set to Transform Energy at Lightning Speed Magnetic Mosaic Confirmed at Last Beyond capturing images, the Solar Orbiter has also unveiled a chaotic magnetic patchwork at the sun's base. This intricate mosaic, characterized by fragmented north and south polarities, had been predicted by computer models for years but was never directly observed until now. Scientists believe that these observations hold the key to understanding the sun's 11-year polarity flip, a phenomenon that fundamentally alters the solar magnetic field. Prof Lucie Green from UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, who has been involved with the mission since 2005, remarked on the significance of these findings. She noted that the sun's magnetic field is responsible for its dynamic behavior, transforming it from a quiet star to one filled with explosive activity. By tracking these polar changes, scientists aim to improve forecasts of the solar cycle, enhancing our ability to predict solar storms and protect our technological assets. World's Largest Solar Telescope Unleashes 5.6-Ton Tech Beast to Capture Unprecedented Images of Massive Sunspot Activity Solar Spin Fuels Chaos The sun's unique rotation pattern further complicates its magnetic behavior. Unlike Earth, the sun exhibits differential rotation, with its equator spinning faster than its poles. This uneven spin twists the sun's magnetic field, much like a rubber band being wound up. Eventually, this tension leads to a magnetic reversal, flipping the north and south poles every 11 years. This cosmic reset is a critical aspect of the solar cycle, influencing everything from sunspots to solar flares. Despite decades of research, scientists still struggle to predict the precise timing and intensity of the solar cycle's peaks and troughs. As the sun approaches its next solar minimum, a period of reduced activity, the data collected by the Solar Orbiter will be invaluable. Launched in 2020, the mission will continue to provide insights as it orbits the sun, gradually increasing its observational angle up to 33 degrees by 2029. '56,000 Homes Become a Power Plant': California Firm Creates Largest Virtual Energy Source in US With Revolutionary Grid-Sharing Tech Solar Cycle Phase Characteristics Solar Maximum Increased sunspots and solar flares, magnetic field reversal Solar Minimum Decreased activity, stabilized magnetic field Implications for Future Solar Research The successful imaging of the sun's south pole not only expands our understanding of solar phenomena but also sets the stage for future research. As technology advances, missions like the Solar Orbiter will continue to push the boundaries of what we know about our closest star. The insights gained from these missions are essential for developing strategies to mitigate the effects of solar activity on Earth. As we look to the future, the question remains: How will the knowledge gained from these groundbreaking observations shape our approach to space exploration and our understanding of the universe? The answers could redefine our relationship with the cosmos and our place within it. Our author used artificial intelligence to enhance this article. Did you like it? 4.5/5 (22)
BBC News
11-06-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Solar Orbiter spacecraft snaps first images of Sun's south pole
The first ever video and images of the Sun's south pole have been sent back to Earth by the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter new images will enable scientists to learn how the Sun cycles between periods of raging storms and quiet is important because intense solar activity can affect satellite communication and knock out power grids on new images show a shimmering bright atmosphere which in parts reaches temperatures of a million degrees Celsius. Interspersed are darker clouds of gas, which although much cooler, are still a searing one hundred thousand pictures are the closest and most detailed ever taken of the Sun and will help scientists learn how the star that gives us life on Earth actually works, according to Prof Carole Mundell, ESA's Director of Science"Today we reveal humankind's first-ever views of the Sun's pole," she says."The Sun is our nearest star, giver of life and potential disruptor of modern space and ground power systems, so it is imperative that we understand how it works and learn to predict its behaviour". From Earth, the Sun is so bright that it appears like a featureless disc. But at different frequencies and using special filters, scientists can see it in its true form: as a dynamic fluid ball, with magnetic fields twisting and turning on the surface and conjuring up flares and loops of gas into its is these magnetic fields that determine when the Sun rages and spits out particles toward the know that the Sun has a quiet period when the magnetic fields are ordered, with our star having a fixed magnetic north and south pole. This is a phase when the Sun is not able to produce violent explosions, but these fields then become complex and chaotic as they reorientate with the north and south poles flipping approximately every 11 the chaotic period the Sun tries to reduce its complexity and violence spills out, as bits of the Sun hurtle toward the Earth. These solar storms can damage communications satellites and power grids, though they can also cause beautiful auroras in the to Prof Lucie Green of UCL, it has been hard to predict this activity with computer models of the Sun because there has been no data on the migration of the magnetic fields towards the poles. But that has now changed"We now have the missing piece of the puzzle," she told BBC News."The reversal of the polar magnetic fields on the Sun has been one of the big open questions in science and what we will be able to do with Solar Orbiter is measure for the first time the really important fluid flows that grab pieces of the magnetic field across the Sun and transport them to the polar regions". The ultimate goal is to develop computer models of the Sun so that this so-called space weather can be predicted. Accurate forecasts will enable satellite operators, power distribution companies, as well as aurora watchers, to better plan for intense solar storms."This is the Holy Grail of solar physics," says Prof Christopher Owen, who specialises in solar wind studies using data from the spacecraft."Solar Orbiter will enable us to get to the bottom of some of the basic science of space weather. But a little more work needs to be done before we get to the point where we see signals on the Sun that we can rely on to predict eruptions that might hit the Earth". Solar Orbiter also has captured new images of chemical elements at different layers of the Sun and their movement. These have been taken using an instrument called SPICE, which measures the specific frequencies of light, called spectral lines, which are sent out by specific chemical elements hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, neon and magnesium at known the first time, the SPICE team has tracked spectral lines to measure how fast clumps of solar material are moving. These measurements can reveal how particles are flung out from the Sun in the form of solar wind.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The Sun's Fury Is Making SpaceX Satellites Plummet From The Sky
The Sun is the angriest it's been in a while – and it's taking out that rage on the thousands of tiny satellites that make up SpaceX's Starlink fleet. A new analysis of Starlink satellites falling from the sky has revealed a distinct pattern: as the Sun escalated towards the peak of its activity cycle between 2020 and 2024, so too did the number of satellite falls as a direct result of that activity. A team of scientists, led by space physicist Denny Oliveira of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, studied 523 Starlink satellites that fell back down towards Earth during that time, and found a clear link with the Sun. "We clearly show that the intense solar activity of the current solar cycle has already had significant impacts on Starlink reentries," they write in their paper. "This is a very exciting time in satellite orbital drag research, since the number of satellites in low-Earth orbit and solar activity are the highest ever observed in human history." The solar cycle is an 11-year cycle of fluctuations in the Sun's activity that centers around a periodic magnetic reversal of the solar poles. It primarily manifests as sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections that steadily increase towards solar maximum (when the poles flip), and then wanes to a minimum before inching back up again. It's just the Sun's normal way to be, and we're currently at the peak of the 25th cycle since we started keeping track of them. It's actually been a pretty strong cycle; not the strongest on record, but still displaying much more solar activity than scientists predicted at its beginning. This means that its effects on Earth have been pretty strong. You may have noticed a lot of aurora activity; that's the effect of solar particles pummeling Earth's atmosphere, borne by coronal mass ejections and the solar wind. But the increase in solar activity has another, less noticeable effect: the increase in solar ejections buffeting the upper atmosphere heats it up significantly. We don't notice it here on the surface. But the increased energy puffs up the atmosphere – enough to increase the amount of drag on spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. This means they cannot hold course at their current trajectory, and need to make adjustments to remain in the sky. To be clear, all satellites in low-Earth orbit are vulnerable to the increase in drag associated with solar activity. To date, however, SpaceX has launched 8,873 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit, of which 7,669 remain operational. These sheer numbers provide an excellent laboratory for studying the effect of solar maximum on satellites in low-Earth orbit. "Here, we use … Starlink orbital data to perform a superposed epoch analysis of orbital altitudes and velocities in order to identify impacts caused by storms with different intensities," the researchers write. "The Starlink reentries coincide with the rising phase of solar cycle 25, a period with increasing solar activity." SpaceX first started launching Starlink satellites in 2019, and the first atmospheric reentries began in 2020. Initially these figures stayed relatively low. There were just two in 2020. In 2021, 78 satellites fell; 99 in 2022, and 88 in 2023. But then 2024 saw a whopping increase – a total of 316 Starlink satellites fell out of the sky. The researchers grouped these reentries according to the geomagnetic conditions at the time – that is, how powerfully solar activity was affecting Earth. Oddly, some 72 percent of all reentries occurred during weak geomagnetic conditions, not the powerful geomagnetic storms. This, the researchers found, was because of the cumulative effect of drag over the rising period of the solar cycle. Rather than being taken down in one fell swoop, the orbits of these satellites degraded subtly over time. Meanwhile, the satellites that did fall during strong geomagnetic conditions fell faster than those that fell in weaker conditions. It's fascinating stuff, actually. We don't have a lot of data on this phenomenon; the work of Oliveira and his colleagues may help design strategies to mitigate the orbital decay induced by solar activity, keeping satellites in low-Earth orbit where they should be (and not, for example, smacking into other satellites and triggering a nasty Kessler cascade). "Our results are promising because they point in the direction of using short-cadence Starlink data (precise orbit determination, neutral mass density, ram direction area, drag coefficient) for the improvement of orbital drag models during geomagnetic storms, particularly during extreme events," the researchers write. The paper has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science, and is available on arXiv. Astronomers Just Discovered The Biggest Explosions Since The Big Bang Titan's Atmosphere 'Wobbles Like a Gyroscope' – And No One Knows Why A 'Crazy Idea' About Pluto Was Just Confirmed in a Scientific First
The Independent
02-06-2025
- Science
- The Independent
The Sun is causing Elon Musk's Starlink satellites to drop from space
Eruptions from the Sun are causing SpaceX 's Starlink satellites to fall to Earth 'faster than expected', according to Nasa scientists. A team from the US space agency's Goddard Space Flight Center made the discovery after investigating the impact of solar activity on the lifespan of satellites in low-Earth orbit. Their findings revealed that Elon Musk 's space internet constellation is particularly prone to the effects of geomagnetic storms, which heat up the planet's atmosphere and increase the drag on satellites. The study coincides with the Sun reaching the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, known as the solar maximum, which has seen large amounts of geomagnetic storms and other extreme space weather. 'Our results indisputably show that satellites reenter faster with higher geomagnetic activity,' the researchers said. 'We clearly show that the intense solar activity of the current solar cycle has already had significant impacts on Starlink reentries.' SpaceX has previously blamed space weather for botched launch attempts of its Starlink satellites. In February 2022, most of the 49 Starlinks launched from a Falcon 9 rocket fell back to Earth over the Caribbean, with the event coinciding with a minor geomagnetic storm. There are currently more than 7,000 Starlink satellites orbiting Earth, with SpaceX planning to increase the constellation's size to up to 30,000 satellites. Each Starlink satellite has a limited lifespan, which is typically less than five years. After this period, the satellites re-enter the atmosphere and burn up before reaching the ground. While some of these satellites use onboard thrusters to deorbit, others fall naturally due to atmospheric drag. The Nasa scientists found that during geomagnetic storms, any satellite orbiting below 300 kilometres burnt up 10 days earlier than expected. These quicker re-entries could increase the chance of satellites not burning up properly in the Earth's atmosphere, the scientists said, and may be responsible for some parts of Starlink satellites reaching the ground. The only known instance of this happening took place in August 2024, when a piece of a Starlink satellite was discovered on a farm in Canada. The research was published in a study, titled 'Tracking reentries of Starlink satellites during the rising phase of Solar Cycle 25'.
