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magnetosphere

NASA Probes Play the Music of Earth’s Magnetosphere

September 18, 2012

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter Launched on August 30, 2012, NASA’s twin Radiation Belt Storm Probe (RBSP) satellites have captured recordings of audible-range radio waves emitted by Earth’s magnetosphere. The stream of chirps and whistles heard in the video above consist of 5 separate occurrences captured [...]

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New Satellites Will Tighten Knowledge of Earth’s Radiation Belts

August 14, 2012

Surrounding our planet like vast invisible donuts (the ones with the hole, not the jelly-filled kind) are the Van Allen radiation belts, regions where various charged subatomic particles get trapped by Earth’s magnetic fields, forming rings of plasma. We know that the particles that make up this plasma can have nasty effects on spacecraft electronics [...]

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Incoming! CME On Its Way Toward Earth

July 13, 2012

As you read this, a huge cloud of charged solar particles is speeding toward our planet, a coronal mass ejection resulting from the X1.4-class flare that erupted from sunspot 1520 on July 12. The CME is expected to collide with Earth’s magnetic field on Saturday, potentially affecting satellite operations and tripping alarms on power grids, [...]

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New Computer Simulations Show Earth’s Spaghetti-Like Magnetosphere

February 9, 2012

A new computer simulation is showing Earth’s magnetosphere in amazing detail – and it looks a lot like a huge pile of tangled spaghetti (with the Earth as a meatball). Or perhaps a cosmic version of modern art. The magnetosphere is formed by the Sun’s magnetic field interacting with Earth’s own magnetic field. When charged [...]

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WIND Satellite

September 12, 2011

The WIND satellite was launched on November 1, 1994. It was the first of two NASA spacecraft planned to take part in the Global Geospace Science initiative and part of the ISTP Project. This is a spin stabilized spacecraft in a halo orbit around the L1 Lagrange point of the Sun. It is more than [...]

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