Heliophysics

Amateur Radio Scientists Shine at the 2025 HamSCI Workshop – NASA Science

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Amateur Radio Scientists Shine at the 2025 HamSCI Workshop – NASA Science

Love Ham Radio? The HamSCI project fosters collaboration between amateur radio operators and professional researchers. Its goals are to advance scientific research and understanding through amateur radio activities, encourage the development of modern technologies to support this research, and provide educational opportunities for the amateur community and the public.  HamSCI held its annual Workshop, ‘HamSCI’s … Read more

First Results from the Eclipse Soundscapes Project: Webinar on May 7 – NASA Science

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First Results from the Eclipse Soundscapes Project: Webinar on May 7 – NASA Science

How do the sudden darkness and temperature changes of a solar eclipse impact life on Earth? The Eclipse Soundscapes project invited you to document changes in the environment during the week of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, using your own senses or an audiomoth sound recorder.  Thanks to your participation, the Eclipse Soundscapes … Read more

NASA’s IMAP Arrives at NASA Marshall For Testing in XRCF   – NASA

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NASA’s IMAP Arrives at NASA Marshall For Testing in XRCF   – NASA

On March 18, NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) arrived at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for thermal vacuum testing at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility, which simulates the harsh conditions of space. The IMAP mission is a modern-day celestial cartographer that will map the solar system by studying the heliosphere, a … Read more

Eclipses, Science, NASA Firsts: Heliophysics Big Year Highlights  – NASA Science

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Eclipses, Science, NASA Firsts: Heliophysics Big Year Highlights  – NASA Science

One year ago today, a total solar eclipse swept across the United States. The event was a cornerstone moment in the Heliophysics Big Year, a global celebration of the Sun’s influence on Earth and the entire solar system. From October 2023 to December 2024 — a period encompassing two solar eclipses across the U.S., two … Read more

How Can I See the Northern Lights? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 54 – NASA

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How Can I See the Northern Lights? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 54 – NASA

How can I see the northern lights? To see the northern lights, you need to be in the right place at the right time. Auroras are the result of charged particles and magnetism from the Sun called space weather dancing with the Earth’s magnetic field. And they happen far above the clouds. So you need … Read more

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Team Wins 2024 Collier Trophy – NASA Science

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NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Team Wins 2024 Collier Trophy – NASA Science

The innovative team of engineers and scientists from NASA, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, and more than 40 other partner organizations across the country that created the Parker Solar Probe mission has been awarded the 2024 Robert J. Collier Trophy by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA). This annual award recognizes the … Read more

NASA to Launch Three Rockets from Alaska in Single Aurora Experiment – NASA Science

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NASA to Launch Three Rockets from Alaska in Single Aurora Experiment – NASA Science

Three NASA-funded rockets are set to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, in an experiment that seeks to reveal how auroral substorms affect the behavior and composition of Earth’s far upper atmosphere.  The experiment’s outcome could upend a long-held theory about the aurora’s interaction with the thermosphere. It may also improve space … Read more

NASA’s EZIE Launches on Mission to Study Earth’s Electrojets – NASA Science

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NASA’s EZIE Launches on Mission to Study Earth’s Electrojets – NASA Science

Under the nighttime California sky, NASA’s EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:43 p.m. PDT on March 14. Taking off from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, the EZIE mission’s trio of small satellites will fly in a pearls-on-a-string configuration approximately 260 to 370 miles above Earth’s surface to … Read more

NASA’s Record-Shattering, Theory-Breaking MMS Mission Turns 10 – NASA Science

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NASA’s Record-Shattering, Theory-Breaking MMS Mission Turns 10 – NASA Science

Since its launch on March 12, 2015, NASA’s MMS, or Magnetospheric Multiscale, mission has been rewriting our understanding of a key physical process that is important across the universe, from black holes to the Sun to Earth’s protective magnetic field. This process, called magnetic reconnection, occurs when magnetic field lines tangle and explosively realign, flinging … Read more

NASA Launches Missions to Study Sun, Universe’s Beginning – NASA

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NASA Launches Missions to Study Sun, Universe’s Beginning – NASA

NASA’s newest astrophysics observatory, SPHEREx, is on its way to study the origins of our universe and the history of galaxies, and to search for the ingredients of life in our galaxy. Short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, SPHEREx lifted off at 8:10 p.m. PDT on … Read more