Browse Archive

  • Earth is surrounded by a giant magnetic bubble, called the magnetosphere.

    Six Years of THEMIS: Understanding the Magnetosphere

    In THEMIS's sixth year in space, it is helping to show how even small variations in the magnetosphere can sometimes cause extreme space weather responses, helping scientist map and predict events in this complex system.

  • Permanent damage to the Salem New Jersey Nuclear Plant GSU Transformer caused by the severe geomagnetic storm of March 13, 1989.

    UN Braces for Stormy Space Weather  →

    The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has a new item is on the agenda: space weather.

  • Scientist Shri Kanekal holds one of the solid-state detectors that will be used in the CREPT.

    Tiny CREPT Instrument to Study the Radiation Belts

    A smaller version of an instrument now flying on NASA's Van Allen Probes has won a coveted spot aboard an upcoming NASA-sponsored Cubesat mission -- the perfect platform for this pint-size, solid-state telescope.

  • White lines represent magnetic field lines looping up out of the sun's surface in this image from SDO's HMI.

    Year Three: NASA SDO Mission Highlights

    In its third year in space, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has also offered several new, unexpected doors to scientific inquiry.

  • On Feb. 6, 2013, the VISIONS sounding rocket successfully launched.

    VISIONS: A Successful Launch

    The principal investigator for VISIONS (VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom imaging during a Substorm), Goddard's Doug Rowland provided images and updates of the team preparations and the launch.

  • The ribbon observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) Mission is a narrow bright feature that spans much of the nighttime sky linking together the summer constellation of Cygnus, the swan, Aquila, the eagle, the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

    Explaining the Ribbon in Space Discovered by IBEX

    Using NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), scientists have devised the best model yet for the appearance of a vast ribbon of neutral atoms that curls through the boundaries of Earth's solar system.

  • One of 20 balloons launched as part of NASA's BARREL mission.

    Twenty NASA Balloons Studying the Radiation Belts

    Just 96 days since launch, the Van Allen Probes have already provided new insights into the structure and behavior of the radiation belts that surround Earth.

  • Engineers surround and align the instrument deck, as it is lowered down and joined to the spacecraft deck.

    Building Four Spacecraft for One Mission

    An unprecedented mission is being built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The center is simultaneously building four identical spacecraft for the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission due to launch in late 2014.

  • Swirls of green and red appear in an aurora over Whitehorse, Yukon on the night of September 3, 2012.

    VISIONS: Seeing the Aurora in a New Light

    A sounding rocket to study the aurora and how oxygen and hydrogen escape Earth's atmosphere may launch as early as Feb. 2, 2013, but the team has a two-week window in order to find the perfect launch conditions.

  • Captured by SDO on July 18, 2012, this image has been processed to highlight the edges of each loop and make the structure more clear.

    SDO Provides First Sightings of How a CME Forms

    On July 18, 20012, scientists used NASA's SDO to see for the first time the formation of something they had long known was at the heart of many eruptive events on the sun: a flux rope.