THEMIS Archives - Universe Today

Feel The Heat! New Mars Map Shows Differences Between Bedrock And Sand

16 Jul , 2014 by Elizabeth Howell

For years, NASA’s Mars Odyssey has been working on some night moves. It’s been taking pictures of the Red Planet during nighttime — more than 20,000 in all — to see how the planet’s heat signature looks while the sun is down. The result is the highest-resolution map ever of the thermal properties of Mars, […]

A Natural Planetary Defense Against Solar Storms

6 Mar , 2014 by David Dickinson

Planetary shields up: solar storms inbound… Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have identified a fascinating natural process by which the magnetosphere of our fair planet can — to use a sports analogy — “shot block,” or at least partially buffer an incoming solar event. The study, released today […]

The Van Allen Belts and the Great Electron Escape

31 Jan , 2012 by Tammy Plotner

[/caption] During the 1950s and just before the great “Space Race” began, scientists like Kristian Birkeland, Carl Stormer, and Nicholas Christofilos had been paying close attention to a theory – one that involved trapped, charged particles in a ring around the Earth. This plasma donut held in place by our planet’s magnetic field was later […]

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Feel The Heat! New Mars Map Shows Differences Between Bedrock And Sand

A Natural Planetary Defense Against Solar Storms

The Van Allen Belts and the Great Electron Escape

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