Effects Of The Solar Wind

The wind speed of a devastating Category 5 hurricane can top over 150 miles per hour (241km/hour.) Now imagine another kind of wind with an average speed of 0.87 million miles per hour (1.4 million km/hour.)
Welcome to the wind that begins in our Sun and doesn't stop until after it reaches the edge of the heliosphere: the solar wind.

The corona is the Sun's inner atmosphere - the brightness that can be seen surrounding an eclipsed Sun - and home to the continually expanding solar wind. Right now, the Parker Solar Probe - launched in 2018, is orbiting the Sun and will get as close as 3.83 million miles (6.16 million km) of the Sun's surface. Parker is gathering new data about the solar particles and magnetic fields that comprise the solar wind. More specifically, two of its main goals are to examine the energy that heats the corona and speeds up the solar wind, and determine the structure of the wind's magnetic fields.

While many theories describe the solar wind's history, this is what we do know: The solar wind impacting Earth's magnetosphere is responsible for triggering those majestic auroras typically seen at locations close to our north and south poles. In some cases it can also set off space weather storms that disrupt everything from our satellites in space, to ship communications on our oceans, to power grids on land.

To say in more detail , how the solar wind disrupts our magnetosphere: As the wind flows toward Earth, it carries with it the Sun's magnetic field. It moves very fast, then smacks right into Earth's magnetic field. The blow causes a shock to our magnetic protection, which can result in turbulence.

There is another reason to study the solar wind and its properties - the solar wind is part of a larger space weather system that can affect astronauts and technology. We not only have to ensure our astronauts are protected from the harmful effects of radiation. We have to protect our equipment too. So, we've already found aluminum to be a good shield to protect our crafts from many energetic particles. But there are also faster particles that travel at 80% of the speed of light, which can cause havoc with parts of a spacecraft. They can smash into and damage solar panels, disrupt electronics, or affect electric currents that flow along power grids. So, we're currently conducting tests with small pieces of technology to study how well they can survive in intense radiation areas.

Knowing more about the effects of the solar wind is not only important to those of us who live on Earth. It will be critical to know how to mitigate its effects once our astronauts travel back to the Moon and beyond for extended periods of time.

If the Sun sneezes, Earth catches a cold, because we always feel the impact of what happens on the Sun thanks to the solar wind.

Get blown away by the science behind the solar wind at MXPlank.com

Amazing Moons

When the Space Age began, explorers were eager to visit the planets of the solar system. As the years have passed, however, astronomers have realized that the moons of the solar system may be even more interesting.
Moons - also called natural satellites - come in many shapes, sizes and types. They are generally solid bodies, and few have atmospheres. Most planetary moons probably formed from the discs of gas and dust circulating around planets in the early solar system.

There are hundreds of moons in our solar system - even a few asteroids have been found to have small companion moons. Moons that begin with a letter and a year are considered provisional moons. They will be given a proper name when their discoveries are confirmed by additional observations.

Of the terrestrial (rocky) planets of the inner solar system, neither Mercury nor Venus have any moons at all, Earth has one and Mars has its two small moons. In the outer solar system, the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune have dozens of moons. As these planets grew in the early solar system, they were able to capture smaller objects with their large gravitational fields

How Moons Get Their Names

Most moons in our solar system are named for mythological characters from a wide variety of cultures. The newest moons discovered at Saturn, for example, are named for Norse gods such as Bergelmir, a giant.

Uranus is the exception. Uranus' moons are named for characters in William Shakespeare's plays so you'll find Ophelia and Puck in orbit. Other Uranian moon names were chosen from Alexander Pope's poetry (Belinda and Ariel).

Moons are given provisional designations such as S/2009 S1, the first satellite discovered at Saturn in 2009. The International Astronomical Union approves an official name when the discovery is confirmed.

Moons of the Inner Solar System

Earth's Moon probably formed when a large body about the size of Mars collided with Earth, ejecting a lot of material from our planet into orbit. Debris from the early Earth and the impacting body accumulated to form the Moon approximately 4.5 billion years ago (the age of the oldest collected lunar rocks). Twelve American astronauts landed on the Moon during NASA's Apollo program from 1969 to 1972, studying the Moon and bringing back rock samples.

Usually the term moon brings to mind a spherical object, like Earth's Moon. The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are different. While both have nearly circular orbits and travel close to the plane of the planet's equator, they are lumpy and dark. Phobos is slowly drawing closer to Mars and could crash into the planet in 40 or 50 million years. Or the planet's gravity might break Phobos apart, creating a thin ring around Mars.

Moons of the Giant Planets

Jupiter's menagerie of moons includes the largest in the solar system (Ganymede), an ocean moon (Europa) and a volcanic moon (Io). Many of Jupiter's outer moons have highly elliptical orbits and orbit backwards (opposite to the spin of the planet). Saturn, Uranus and Neptune also have some irregular moons, which orbit far from their respective planets.

Saturn has two ocean moons-Enceladus and Titan. Both have subsurface oceans and Titan also has surface seas of lakes of ethane and methane. The chunks of ice and rock in Saturn's rings (and the particles in the rings of the other outer planets) are not considered moons, yet embedded in Saturn's rings are distinct moons or moonlets. These shepherd moons help keep the rings in line. Titan, the second largest in the solar system, is the only moon with a thick atmosphere.

In the realm of the ice giants, Uranus's inner moons appear to be about half water ice and half rock. Miranda is the most unusual; its chopped-up appearance shows the scars of impacts of large rocky bodies.

Neptune's moon Triton is as big as Pluto and orbits backwards compared with Neptune's direction of rotation.

Moons of Dwarf Planets

Pluto's large moon Charon is about half the size of Pluto. Like Earth's Moon, Charon may have formed from debris resulting from an early collision of an impactor with Pluto. Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope to study Pluto found four more small moons.

Eris, another dwarf planet even more distant than Pluto, has a small moon of its own, named Dysnomia. Haumea, another dwarf planet, has two satellites, Hi'iaka and Namaka. Ceres, the closest dwarf planet to the Sun, has no moons.

More Moons

Scientists weren't sure if asteroids could hold moons in their orbits until the Galileo spacecraft flew past asteroid Ida in 1993. Images revealed a tiny moon, later named Dactyl.

What Lies Inside The Jupiter

For four long centuries the gas giant's vast interior has remained hidden from view. JUNO probe, launched on August 5th, changed all that.
It's really hot inside Jupiter! No one knows exactly how hot, but scientists think it could be about 43,000°F (24,000°C) near Jupiter's center, or core. Jupiter is made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. On the surface of Jupiter-and on Earth-those elements are gases. However inside Jupiter, hydrogen can be a liquid, or even a kind of metal. These changes happen because of the tremendous temperatures and pressures found at the core.

What is pressure?

Have you ever gone swimming at the deep end of a pool? Did you notice that your ears started to hurt a little bit when you were under water? The deeper you dive, the more water there is on top of you. All of that water presses on your body-and that's pressure. The same type of pressure happens in Jupiter's core. Under low pressure, particles of hydrogen and helium, called molecules, have lots of room to bounce around. This is when hydrogen and helium are gases. However, the weight of all this hydrogen and helium is really heavy. This weight presses down toward the planet's core, creating high pressure. The molecules run out of room to bounce around, so instead, they slow down and crowd together. This creates a liquid.

How much pressure would you find at the center of Jupiter?

Imagine if you swam to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. You would feel more than 16,000 pounds of force pressing down on every square inch of your body. That is approximately the weight of four cars! The pressure at the center of Jupiter is much higher. At Jupiter's core, you would feel as much as 650 million pounds of pressure pressing down on every square inch of your body. That would be like having approximately 160,000 cars stacked up in every direction all over your body!

What lies at the very center of Jupiter?

At the moment, scientists aren't 100% sure. It may be that the planet has a solid core that is bigger than Earth. But some scientists think it could be more like a thick, boiling-hot soup. JUNO mission is designed to find answers to such remaining questions about Jupiter. The spacecraft is orbiting the giant planet, swooping in for close-up looks to get more detailed information. Juno has already made many new discoveries about Jupiter. Scientists hope that information from Juno will help us measure Jupiter's mass and figure out whether or not the giant planet's core is solid.