Browse Archive

  • Composite image of noctilucent cloud cover above the South Pole on December 31, 2009.

    Clouds, Clouds, Burning Bright

    The NASA mission Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere has shown that night-shining 'noctilucent' cloud formation is changing year to year, showing a link between northern and southern weather systems some 13000 miles apart.

  • A SOHO Chronograph of the fast CME of March 7, 2011 with SDO 304 angstrom solar image overlaid.

    The Watched Pot and Fast CMEs

    Back in 2008, the solar cycle plunged into the deepest minimum in nearly a century. As 2011 unfolds, sunspots have returned and they are crackling with activity.

  • Engineers at JHUAPL inspect Radiation Belt Storm Probe A in the clean room.

    RBSP - Mission Status

    What were once bare black octagonal boxes are now recognizable as full-fledged spacecraft, each laden with propulsion systems, power and avionics systems. NASA has approved a new launch readiness date of August 15, 2012.

  • Suzie Imber at her desk where she researches Earth's magnetosphere.

    Fire and Ice: A Profile of Space Scientist Suzie Imber

    Suzie Imber studies the gigantic magnetic fields traveling between the sun and our planet, but every once in awhile she abandons it all for something a lot more earthy: ice climbs up the world's highest mountains.

  • The application provides a comprehensive pool of data and model products for all major space weather areas of interest.

    Fortuitous Timing for NASA's New Space Weather App

    NASA officially releases new Space Weather App making images and other data almost immediately available to users.

  • Johannes Fabricius published the first scientific manuscript, titled De Maculis in Sole observatis et Apparente earum cum Sole Conversione Narratio (Narration on Spots Observed on the Sun and their Apparent Rotation with the Sun), on sunspots in June 1611.

    Celebrating 400 Years of Sunspot Observations

    On March 9, 1611, Johannes Fabricius, who would become the first person to publish a scientific paper on sunspots, used a telescope to catch his first glimpse of one of these dark spots on the sun.

  • Artist's concept shows NASA's two Voyager spacecraft exploring a turbulent region of space known as the heliosheath

    Voyager Seeks the Answer Blowin' in the Wind

    In which direction is the sun's stream of charged particles banking when it nears the edge of the solar system?

  • In this artistic cutaway view of the sun, the Great Conveyor Belt appears as a set of black loops connecting the stellar surface to the interior. Golden lines denote magnetic fields.

    Researchers Crack the Mystery of the Spotless Sun

    In 2008-2009, sunspots almost completely disappeared for two years. But why? Solar Physicists now know the answer.

  • The two RBSP spacecraft will help study the Van Allen Radiation belts that surround Earth.

    Launching Balloons in Antarctica

    A successful test launch in Antarctica for BARREL (Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses) shows how it will will work hand in hand with the Radiation Belt Space Probes mission.

  • The white lines show a model of where magnetic field lines are expected in Earth's magnetic atmosphere. The bright red colors show the densest part of the plasma sheet as imaged by IBEX.

    Catching Space Weather in the Act

    Special cameras aboard the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft have snapped the first images of space weather as it happens.