Researchers have observed their first “space hurricane” – a 1,000-km-wide vortex of plasma – in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Like conventional hurricanes, this storm featured precipitation (of electrons rather than rain), Keep reading
Tag: solar wind
Jovian Auroras
Like Earth, Jupiter is home to polar auroras that light the sky as charged particles interact with the planet’s magnetosphere. A recent paper identifies interesting features in the aurora that Keep reading
Grayscale Aurora
This swirling grayscale image shows a spring aurora over the Hudson Bay, as seen by the Suomi NPP satellite. As energetic particles from the sun zip past Earth, they interact with our magnetosphere, which Keep reading
Shock Waves in the Solar Wind
The empty space of our solar system is not truly empty, as we’ve discussed previously. For one, there’s a fast-moving flux of charged particles – the solar wind – that Keep reading
Where Does the Sun End?
How do you define the edge of our sun? There’s a distinct surface to it, but our star is also surrounded by the corona, an even hotter region of plasma Keep reading
Turbulence in the Solar Wind
One of the key features of turbulent flows is that they contain many different length scales. Look at the plume from an erupting volcano, and you’ll see eddies that are Keep reading
Auroras From Space
NASA has released a jaw-dropping new compilation of Earth’s auroras viewed from the International Space Station. It’s available in up to 4K resolution, and I heartily recommend watching it fullscreen Keep reading
Saturnian Auroras
Earth is not the only planet in our solar system with auroras. As the solar wind–a stream of rarefied plasma from our sun–blows through the solar system, it interacts with Keep reading
Aurora From Space
An aurora, as seen from the International Space Station, glows in green and red waves over the polar regions of Earth. These lights are the result of interactions between the Keep reading
Solar Wind
Fluid dynamics appear at all kinds of scales. The animation above shows two comets, Encke and ISON, on their recent approach toward the sun. The darker wisps emanating from the Keep reading