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Posts tagged solar system

Jun 14

NASA Voyager Craft Discover Magnetic ‘Bubbles’ At Solar System’s Edge.

NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft have made a baffling discovery along their journey to the outer limits of the solar system.

Scientists studying the Voyager data noticed what may be giant magnetic bubbles located in the heliosphere, the region of our solar system that separates us from the violent solar winds of interstellar space.

The bubbles, scientists believe, form when the sun’s magnetic field becomes warped at the edge of our solar system.

“The sun’s magnetic field extends all the way to the edge of the solar system,” astronomer Merav Opher of Boston University said in a statement released Thursday. “Because the sun spins, its magnetic field becomes twisted and wrinkled, a bit like a ballerina’s skirt. Far, far away from the sun, where the Voyagers are, the folds of the skirt bunch up.”

What will these bubbles tell us about the way our sun’s magnetic field interacts with interstellar rays entering our solar system? According to CNET, Voyager project scientist Ed Stone told CBS News that this layer of bubbles “might affect how cosmic rays from outside can actually get inside the heliosphere. They have to sort of manage to get across all these bubbles.”

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched the Voyager craft 33 years ago on a mission bound for interstellar space.

Posted at 5:52 AM 8 notes Tagged: NASAVoyagerspacecraftsolar systemmagneticbubbles

Oct 10
(Oct. 10) — Like something out of a sci-fi movie, did alien particles find their way inside a space probe that landed on an asteroid and returned to Earth?That question was raised last week by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, according to Japanese news agencies. Scientists reportedly found small, odd particles inside Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft, which returned to Earth in June after a seven-year, 3-billion-mile journey that took it to an asteroid and back.Hayabusa left Earth in 2003, destined to become the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, one of the many small, rocky objects found in space generally between the planets Mars and Jupiter.After a more than two-year voyage, Hayabusa spent 30 minutes on the surface of an asteroid — dubbed Itokawa — and collected small samples of asteroid dust.Hayabusa’s mission was to get enough asteroid samples to help scientists learn more about the origins of our solar system. NASA researchers are helping JAXA in the examination of the spacecraft’s powder payload.Whether the asteroid dust contains an unknown extraterrestrial life form may not be known for some time, as the analysis of the material will continue for several months. “Although we have not yet analyzed the makeup of the particles, I personally think the particles include sand removed from the Itokawa asteroid,” said JAXA scientist Toshifumi MukaiRecent electron microscope analysis detected some particles that display different characteristics from the dust already picked up by the spacecraft.

(Oct. 10) — Like something out of a sci-fi movie, did alien particles find their way inside a space probe that landed on an asteroid and returned to Earth?

That question was raised last week by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, according to Japanese news agencies. Scientists reportedly found small, odd particles inside Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft, which returned to Earth in June after a seven-year, 3-billion-mile journey that took it to an asteroid and back.

Hayabusa left Earth in 2003, destined to become the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, one of the many small, rocky objects found in space generally between the planets Mars and Jupiter.After a more than two-year voyage, Hayabusa spent 30 minutes on the surface of an asteroid — dubbed Itokawa — and collected small samples of asteroid dust.Hayabusa’s mission was to get enough asteroid samples to help scientists learn more about the origins of our solar system. NASA researchers are helping JAXA in the examination of the spacecraft’s powder payload.

Whether the asteroid dust contains an unknown extraterrestrial life form may not be known for some time, as the analysis of the material will continue for several months.

“Although we have not yet analyzed the makeup of the particles, I personally think the particles include sand removed from the Itokawa asteroid,” said JAXA scientist Toshifumi Mukai

Recent electron microscope analysis detected some particles that display different characteristics from the dust already picked up by the spacecraft.



Posted at 11:50 AM Tagged: alienparticlesspace probeJapan Aerospace Exploration AgencyJAXAJapaneseHayabusaspacecraftsolar systemasteroid samplesNASAresearchers