Browse Archive

  • Goddard scientists put the finishing touches on Firestation.

    Firestation: Getting Ready for Launch

    An experiment to study the effects of lightning flashes on Earth's atmosphere has taken its first steps on its journey to space. The Firestation experiment has undergone numerous tests to make sure it's ready for flight.

  • Artist's depiction of the SAMPEX satellite

    SAMPEX: A Space Weather Warrior

    NASA's first small explorer, SAMPEX, has studied the zoo of particles and cosmic rays surrounding Earth since 1992. In early Nov., 2012, the spacecraft's orbit will decay enough that SAMPEX will re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

  • Image of FOXSI's optics

    A Next-Generation X-Ray Telescope Launches

    On November 2, a NASA mission called FOXSI was launched from White Sands, New Mexico to study nanoflares on the sun.

  • Since its launch in 2006, the STEREO spacecraft have drifted further and further apart to gain different views of the sun.

    STEREO Reaches Milestone At Sixth Anniversary

    On Sept. 1, 2012, the two STEREO spacecraft and Earth were almost exactly equidistant, each with a direct view of a different third of the sun.

  • When the interplanetary magnetic field is oriented westward (dawnward) or eastward (duskward), magnetopause boundary layers at higher latitude become most subject to Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities.

    Cluster Reveals New Insights Into Solar Wind

    A new study based on data from ESA's Cluster mission shows that it is easier for the solar wind to penetrate Earth's magnetic environment, the magnetosphere, than had previously been thought.

  • Left: The sun on Feb. 24, 2011 as observed by SDO.

    Heliophysics Nugget: Gradient Sun

    Science and art techniques are often quite similar, indeed each area often helps improve techniques in the other. One such case is a technique known as a 'gradient filter' used to examine fine structures on the sun.

  • During an eclipse, lack of heat from the sun causes the window in front of SDO’s HMI to change shape resulting in a blurry image (left). The right half shows HMI data at its usual high resolution

    Getting NASA's SDO into Focus

    From Sept. 6 to Sept. 29, 2012, NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory moved into its semi-annual eclipse season. It takes a little work to re-focus right after the eclipse.

  • The faint oval hovering above the upper left limb of the sun in this picture is known as a coronal cavity.

    NASA's Solar Fleet Peers Into Coronal Cavities

    By understanding the morphology, density and temperature of coronal cavities scientists can better understand eruptions on the sun and the space weather that can disrupt technologies near Earth.

  • RBSP Mission Operations Center at Johns Hopkins APL

    Hours After Launch, RBSP Takes First Science Steps

    Immediately after launch, RBSP entered a 60-day commissioning phase of operations, where all of the spacecrafts’ systems and instruments are activated, monitored, and made ready for the two-year primary science mission.

  • RBSP spacecraft with EMFISIS instruments labeled.

    New 'Chorus' Recording By RBSP's EMFISIS Instrument

    Radio waves, recorded by RBSP's EMFISIS instrument, are at frequencies that are audible to the human ear and are emitted by the energetic particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere.