Energy ribbon at solar system's edge a 'cosmic roadmap'

A model of the interstellar magnetic fields which would otherwise be straight -- warping around the outside of our heliosphere, based on data from NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer. The red arrow shows the direction in which the solar system moves through the galaxy.NASA/IBEX/UNH

Cosmic ray intensities (left) compared with predictions (right) from NASA's IBEX spacecraft. The similarity between these observations and predictions supports the local galactic magnetic field direction determined from IBEX observations made from particles at vastly lower energies than the cosmic ray observations shown here. The blue area represents regions of lower fluxes of cosmic rays. The gray and white lines separate regions of different energiesâlower energies above the lines, high energies below.Nathan Schwadron/UNH-EOS

A strange ribbon of energy and particles at the edge of the solar system first spotted by a NASA spacecraft appears to serve as a sort of "roadmap in the sky" for the interstellar magnetic field, scientists say.

By comparing ground-based studies and in-space observations of solar system's mysterious energy ribbon, which was first discovered by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) in 2009, scientists are learning more details about the conditions at the solar system's edge. The study also sheds light into the sun's environment protects the solar system from high-energy cosmic rays. [Photos and Images from NASA's IBEX Spacecraft]

"What I always have been trying to do was to establish a clear connection between the very high-energy cosmic rays we're seeing [from the ground] and what IBEX is seeing," study leader Nathan Schwadron, a physicist at the University of New Hampshire, told Space.com.

Previously, maps from ground-based observatories showed researchers that clusters of cosmic rays — extremely high-energy particles that originate from supernovas — are correlated with the IBEX ribbon. The ribbon is roughly perpendicular to the interstellar magnetic field while cosmic rays stream, on average, along the interstellar magnetic field. (The particles themselves are created from interactions between the solar wind and interstellar matter.)

In the longer term, Schwadron said work like this will help scientists better understand more about the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. This is a region that only one mission — NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft — has reached so far, and scientists know little about what that environment is like.

Travelling through the transition zone
The sun's sphere of influence in the solar system is known as the heliosphere. The sun's "solar wind" of high-energy particles flows within the heliosphere and pushes back against high-energy cosmic rays originating in interstellar space. The transition zone between these two regions is called the heliosheath.

Here's where a mystery arises: Voyager 1's measurements of the magnetic field from the edge of interstellar space show a starkly different direction of the magnetic field inferred in the IBEX ribbon, Schwadron said.

"At that point, you say to yourself what’s wrong? What could possibly be the issue? It seems like we now have good independent confirmation that the IBEX ribbon is ordered by the interstellar magnetic field, and we know that Voyager 1 takes fairly good measurements," Schwadron said.

The few studies examining this issue, showing little consensus. An October paper co-authored by Schwadron in Astrophysical Journal Letters argued that Voyager 1 could be measuring interstellar plasma coming in through magnetic field lines, but may still be in the heliosheath itself. This stands in contrast to findings from NASA and other science groups saying Voyager 1 is definitively in interstellar space.

The researchers noted that Voyager 1 is picking up its information "at a specific time and place," but IBEX's data is collected and averaged across vast distances, so that could also lead to discrepancies.

"What is really missing here is our understanding of the physics," Schwadron said, adding that reconnection between magnetic field lines could be an example of something that changes the conditions of the boundary region.

The research was published Thursday in the journal Science Express and includes participation from several United States research institutions.

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Solar plane to set out to cross U.S. in early May

By Braden Reddall

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) - The first crossing of the United States by a solar-powered plane is expected to start in just over a month, its creators said on Thursday, as they make final preparations for an attempt two years from now at the first round-the-world flight without any fuel.

Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard and project co-founder and pilot Andre Borschberg, whose Solar Impulse made its first intercontinental flight from Spain to Morocco last June, aim for their plane to take off from near San Francisco in early May and land at New York's John F. Kennedy airport about two months later.

With the wingspan of a jumbo jet and weighing the same as a small car, the Solar Impulse is just a test model for the team as they build a new aircraft they hope will circumnavigate the globe in 2015.

The project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros ($112 million) and has involved engineers from Swiss lift maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay -- backers who want to test new materials and technologies while also gaining brand recognition.

Unveiling the current plane at a news conference at Moffett Field on San Francisco Bay, Borschberg highlighted the cramped conditions of the cockpit in the Solar Impulse.

"That's a bad economy seat - you would not fly on this airline," he joked. "The next one should be good business class."

While the current plane was set up for 24-hour flights, the next one would have to allow for up to five days and five nights of flying by one pilot - a feat never yet accomplished.

Meditation and hypnosis were part of the training for the pilots as they prepare to fly on very little sleep, Borschberg said, adding that some sort of autopilot system would have to be built on the next plane to allow for some rest.

The plane runs on about the same power as a motor scooter, he explained, powered by 12,000 solar cells built into the wing that simultaneously recharge the batteries - with storage equivalent to that of a Tesla electric car.

The plane has already flown a 26-hour flight, back in 2010, to prove continuous flight was possible with charging taking place in the day and battery power working at night.

Piccard, asked about the downside of solar-powered flight, agreed that there is a price paid for the small carrying capacity and massive wings.

"In that sense, it is not the easiest way to fly," he said. "But it is the most fabulous way to fly, because the more you fly, the more energy you have on board."

The first stop for the Solar Impulse as it crosses the United States will be Phoenix, followed by Dallas and then one of three cities: Atlanta, Nashville or St. Louis. It will then stop outside Washington D.C. before heading on to New York.

"It carries one pilot and zero passengers, but it carries a lot of messages," Piccard said. "We want to inspire as many people as possible to have that same spirit: to dare, to innovate, to invent."

Piccard has a pioneering legacy to maintain. His grandfather helped his father, Jacques, build a revolutionary submarine that Jacques co-piloted on the deepest-ever dive. Bertrand said he believes the basic idea behind this spirit is to find out what you deeply believe, and then try the opposite.

"Innovation is not about new ideas, it's about getting rid of old ideas."

(Reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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National Lab Scientist Recognized for Solar Silicon Research

In 2010, scientist Howard Branz, a research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was part of a team honored for reducing reflection waste by turning silicon cells black. Now, Branz has been honored again -- this time for his work on thin films and nanostructures -- by the American Physical Society. Here are the details.

* Branz was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, an honor bestowed yearly on fewer than one-half of 1 percent of the organization's 50,000 members, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reported this week.

* According to the laboratory, Branz was elected for his research on "thin film silicon: defects, metastability, growth processing, nano-structuring and solar cells."

* The award in 2010 for black silicon was given to Branz's National Center for Photovoltaics team by R&D 100 Magazine after the team showed that the process of turning silicon black produced a confirmed record of 18.2 percent efficiency for a nano solar cell.

* In 2010, Branz also won the Southeast Regional Laboratory Consortium Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer.

* Described as a talented, productive scientist who is gifted at creating novel renewable energy technology, and a brilliant research organizer, Branz has been recognized worldwide for research in nano-structured anti-reflection silicon, solar hydrogen production and defects and diffusion in semiconductors, the national laboratory reported.

* Branz was also recently named to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Research Fellows Council , which advises the lab on enhancing the quality and defining the direction of science and technology. A spot on the 10-member council is reserved for those who have national and international recognition in their fields of science.

* Branz obtained his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 1987. He has published 106 journal articles and 104 conference papers.

* Branz also has 17 patents issued or applied for and five pending National Renewable Energy Laboratory Records of Invention.

* The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, based in Golden, Colo., is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

* The American Physical Society is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. Its membership includes physicists in academia, national laboratories and industry throughout the world.

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Power companies prepare as solar storms set to hit Earth

NEW YORK | Sat Aug 6, 2011 1:04pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three large explosions from the Sun over the past few days have prompted U.S. government scientists to caution users of satellite, telecommunications and electric equipment to prepare for possible disruptions over the next few days.

"The magnetic storm that is soon to develop probably will be in the moderate to strong level," said Joseph Kunches, a space weather scientist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

He said solar storms this week could affect communications and global positioning system (GPS) satellites and might even produce an aurora visible as far south as Minnesota and Wisconsin.

An aurora, called aurora borealis or the northern lights in northern latitudes, is a natural light display in the sky in the Arctic and Antarctic regions caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.

Major disruptions from solar activity are rare but have had serious impacts in the past.

In 1989, a solar storm took down the power grid in Quebec, Canada, leaving about six million people without power for several hours.

The largest solar storm ever recorded was in 1859 when communications infrastructure was limited to telegraphs.

The 1859 solar storm hit telegraph offices around the world and caused a giant aurora visible as far south as the Caribbean Islands.

Some telegraph operators reported electric shocks. Papers caught fire. And many telegraph systems continued to send and receive signals even after operators disconnected batteries, NOAA said on its website.

A storm of similar magnitude today could cause up to $2 trillion in damage globally, according to a 2008 report by the National Research Council.

"I don't think this week's solar storms will be anywhere near that. This will be a two or three out of five on the NOAA Space Weather Scale," said Kunches.

SOLAR SCALE

The NOAA Space Weather Scale measures the intensity of a solar storm from one being the lowest intensity to five being the highest, similar to scales that measure the severity of hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.

The first of the three solar explosions from the sun this week already passed the Earth on Thursday with little impact, Kunches said, noting, the second was passing the Earth now and "seems to be stronger."

And the third, he said, "We'll have to see what happens over the next few days. It could exacerbate the disturbance in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the second (storm) or do nothing at all."

Power grid managers receive alerts from the Space Weather Prediction Center to tell them to prepare for solar events, which peak about every 12 years, Tom Bogdan, director of the center said.

He said the next peak, called a solar maximum, was expected in 2013.

"We're coming up to the next solar maximum, so we expect to see more of these storms coming from the sun over the next three to five years," Bogdan said.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Alden Bentley)

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'Stealth' Solar Eclipse Occurs Friday (SPACE.com)

If you miss the partial eclipse of the sun on Friday (July 1), don't feel bad; everyone else on the planet will likely miss it, too. But a touch of skywatching trivia makes it a rare event.

Friday's solar eclipse will occur over an extremely remote part of the world — an uninhabited region in the southern Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Antarctica. You could even call it a "stealth" eclipse since it will probably only be seen by a few penguins and leopard seals.

"This Southern Hemisphere event is visible from a D-shaped region in the Antarctic Ocean south of Africa," said eclipse expert Fred Espenak, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, on the space agency's Eclipse Web Site. "Such a remote and isolated path means that it may very well turn out to be the solar eclipse that nobody sees."

The 90-minute eclipse will hit its peak at about 4:40 a.m. EDT (0840 UT and GMT). Only 9.7 percent of the sun will be blocked by the moon during the eclipse, making it a minor event as eclipses go. [Photos: "Midnight" Partial Solar Eclipse of 2011]

However, the timing of the solar eclipse lends it some unusual characteristics, making it notable to astronomers. The European Space Agency hopes to use its Proba-2 satellite to observe the event.

First, the July 1 partial solar eclipse is the third of a series of sun and moon eclipses within a single month.

Rare triple eclipse

On June 1, a more impressive partial solar eclipse occurred over Earth's northern polar region, stunning skywatchers across Europe and Asia. Then, on June 15, a total lunar eclipse (the first of two in 2011) occurred, with the moon turning a blood-red hue for skywatchers across the Eastern Hemisphere.

And now we have a third eclipse, and the second partial eclipse of the sun. This trio of eclipses is possible because of the mechanics of the moon's phases, according to SPACE.com's skywatching columnist Joe Rao. [Infographic: How Moon Phases Work]

Several conditions have to line up for an eclipse to take place. The moon must be in its full or new phases, for example, when it reaches a point in its orbit that intersects with the plane of Earth's orbit, which is called a node, Rao explained earlier this week. 

When the moon is near these node points, it can create a solar eclipse (when the moon is between the sun and Earth) or a lunar eclipse (when Earth is between the moon and the sun).

The total lunar eclipse during the full moon on June 15 was extremely closely aligned with its respective node point, which meant that the new moon phases on either side would be in position for a partial solar eclipse, Rao explained.

"Such an unusual circumstance as this won't happen again until 2029," Rao wrote.

A new eclipse series

The other notable feature of Friday's partial solar eclipse is that it kicks off a completely new series of eclipses in what is known as the Saros cycle, astronomers said.

Astronomers have long used the Saros cycle to organize eclipse events because of their predictability. The cycle is 6,585.3 days long (that's 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours) and marks the time between two eclipses with similar geometry in the night sky.

While each Saros cycle lasts just over 18 years, one series of these cycles can last centuries. According to Espenak, each Saros series can last between 1,200 and 1,300 years.

So while Friday's partial solar eclipse will be a less than impressive sight to behold, on the cosmic scale, it is a major turn of the clock.

"This event is the first eclipse of Saros 156," Espenak explained. "The family will produce 8 partial eclipses, followed by 52 annular eclipses and ending with 9 more partials" between 2011 and the year 3237.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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'Stealth' Solar Eclipse Spotted in Satellite Photos (SPACE.com)

The moon blocked part of the sun in a partial solar eclipse today (July 1) in an event caught on camera by a European satellite, even though it was largely invisible to everyone on planet Earth.

The solar eclipse peaked at about 4:40 a.m. EDT (0840 GMT), but it was only visible from an extremely remote — and uninhabited — patch of the southern Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Antarctica, south of Africa.  NASA classified the stealthy eclipse as the "eclipse that nobody sees," but the European Space Agency's Proba-2 satellite orbiting Earth managed to observe the event using a telescope called Swap.

The Proba-2 photos show the sun with a small, dark bite missing at the point where the moon blocked the star's light. The solar eclipse lasted about 90 minutes, with the moon blocking only about 9.7 percent of the sun's surface at the event's peak. [Proba-2 satellite's July 1 solar eclipse photos]

Proba-2's Swap telescope snapped views of the eclipse in the extreme-ultraviolet range of the light spectrum and managed to perform multiple observation passes as it orbited the Earth, mission scientists said.

"SWAP observes the solar eclipse in two subsequent orbits of Proba-2," scientists wrote on the satellite mission's website.

ESA's Proba-2 satellite has a dual mission to study the sun and test new spacecraft technologies. It carries two sun-watching instruments, two space weather monitors and 17 technology demonstration experiments.

Solar eclipses occur when the moon is in its new phase and at a point in its orbit that is between the Earth and the sun. When the moon aligns perfectly with the sun, as viewed from Earth, a total solar eclipse occurs, while at other times the sun is only partly obscured.

Friday's partial solar eclipse marked the third in a rare series of sun and moon eclipses within a one-month period and also kicked off a new cycle of eclipse events, which astronomers call Saros cycle 156.

The event followed a spectacular June 1 partial solar eclipse, which was visible over the northern polar regions of Europe and Asia, as well as the total lunar eclipse of June 15 that was observed by skywatchers across the Eastern Hemisphere.

The next eclipse of 2011 will also be a partial solar eclipse and will occur on Nov. 25. That event will be visible from southern South Africa, Antarctica, and New Zealand.

A Dec. 10 total lunar eclipse, which should be visible from eastern Asia, Australia, and northwestern North America, will round out the 2011 sun and moon eclipse events.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Solar Storms Sparked By Giant 'Magnetic Rope,' Study Finds (SPACE.com)

A giant "magnetic rope" made up of twisting magnetic field lines could produce the strong electric currents that trigger solar storms, a new study finds.

Researchers at George Mason University sifted through data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to study the magnetic rope phenomenon. Scientists have predicted that this rope is the cause of violent eruptions on the sun, but have previously struggled to prove its existence because of how quickly it moves.

Confirming the magnetic rope's existence would not only help astronomers understand the formation of solar storms, but would also be a key first step toward mitigating the adverse effects these eruptions can have on satellite communications on Earth. [Amazing New Sun Photos from Space]

Jie Zhang, an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy at George Mason University, and graduate student Xin Cheng closely examined images taken by SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) telescope.

The researchers were able to pinpoint an area on the sun where a magnetic rope was forming. The AIA telescope captures images of the sun every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day.

"The magnetic rope triggers a solar eruption," Zhang said in a statement. "Scientists have been debating whether or not this magnetic rope exists before a solar eruption. I believe that the result of this excellent observation helps finally solve this controversial issue."

Powering solar storms

It is widely believed that magnetic fields in the sun play an essential role in storing energy and powering solar storms. Yet, the exact form that magnetic field lines take prior to eruptions is not well understood. Most field lines are semicircular loops with their foot-points rooted on the surface of the sun. As a result, they cannot erupt easily, and in fact, they often can prevent eruptions.

Scientists suspected that the magnetic rope, if it indeed exists, is the phenomenon that powers eruptions. A magnetic rope contains many magnetic field lines wrapping around a center axis and possibly twisting around each other.

Because of the twisting, a strong electric current can be carried by the magnetic rope. Theoretically, the electric current could produce enough electromagnetic force to overcome the overlying constraining force from other field lines and power the magnetic rope to move outward. [Photos: Sunspots on Earth's Star]

Images from the AIA telescope now reveal that, prior to eruption, there is a long and low-lying channel running through the entire active region, which heats to a scorching-hot temperature and slowly rises. When it reaches a critical point, it starts to erupt quickly.

This feature is distinctly different from the surrounding magnetic field lines, and the intensely hot channel is now believed to be the magnetic rope that scientists have been looking for.

More than just a pretty picture

Solar storms are violent eruptions on the sun that send a wave of charged particles, called plasma, into space at the speed of more than one million miles per hour. The cloud of plasma carries with it a strong magnetic field.

Sometimes these plasma clouds are directed at Earth, and can deposit a large amount of energy into the planet's magnetosphere.

Normally, the Earth's magnetosphere acts as a shield from these harmful particles and protects the environment. But a solar storm has the potential to disrupt the shielding effect, and severe space weather can have harmful effects on a wide array of technological systems, including satellite operations, communications, navigation and electric power grids.

Studies of space weather aid in the development of early warning systems for solar storms and help to minimize the damage from turbulent solar activity, researchers said.

"Understanding the eruption process of these storms will definitely help us better predict them," Zhang said. "We cannot prevent solar storms, just like we cannot prevent earthquakes or volcanoes. But the development of prediction capacity can help mitigate adverse effects. For instance, satellite operators can power-down key systems to prevent the possible damage to the systems."

The results of the study were reported at the American Astronomical Society Solar Physics Division Meeting, which is being held from June 12 to 16 at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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'Dramatic' solar flare could disrupt Earth communications (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said.

The potent blast from the Sun unleashed a firestorm of radiation on a level not witnessed since 2006, and will likely lead to moderate geomagnetic storm activity by Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.

"This one was rather dramatic," said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at the NWS's Space Weather Prediction Center, describing the M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare that peaked at 1:41 am Eastern time in the United States, or 0541 GMT.

"We saw the initial flare occurring and it wasn't that big but then the eruption associated with it -- we got energy particle radiation flowing in and we got a big coronal mass injection," he said.

"You can see all the materials blasting up from the Sun so it is quite fantastic to look at."

NASA's solar dynamics observatory, which launched last year and provided the high-definition pictures and video of the event, described it as "visually spectacular," but noted that since the eruption was not pointed directly at Earth, the effects were expected to remain "fairly small."

"The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface," said a NASA statement.

Murtagh said space weather analysts were watching closely to see whether the event would cause any collision of magnetic fields between the Sun and Earth, some 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) apart.

"Part of our job here is to monitor and determine whether it is Earth-directed because essentially that material that is blasting out is gas with magnetic field combined," he told AFP.

"In a day or so from now we are expecting some of that material to impact us here on Earth and create a geomagnetic storm," he said.

"We don't expect it to be any kind of a real severe one but it could be kind of a moderate level storm."

The Space Weather Prediction Center said the event is "expected to cause G1 (minor) to G2 (moderate) levels of geomagnetic storm activity tomorrow, June 8, beginning around 1800 GMT."

Any geomagnetic storm activity will likely be over within 12-24 hours.

"The Solar Radiation Storm includes a significant contribution of high energy protons, the first such occurrence of an event of that type since December 2006," the NWS said.

As many as 12 satellites and spacecraft are monitoring the heliosphere, and one instrument in particular on board NASA's lunar reconnaissance orbiter is measuring radiation and its effects.

"Certainly over the (two-year) lifetime of the mission this is the most significant event," said Harlan Spence, principal investigator for the cosmic ray telescope for the effects of radiation, or CRaTER.

"This is really exciting because ironically when we were developing the mission initially we thought we would be launching closer to a solar maximum when these big solar particle events typically occur," Spence told AFP.

"Instead we launched into a historic solar minimum that took a long, long time to wake up," he said.

"This is interesting and significant because it shows the Sun is returning to its more typical active state."

The resulting geomagnetic storm could cause some disruption in power grids, satellites that operate global positioning systems and other devices, and may lead to some rerouting of flights over the polar regions, Murtagh said.

"Generally it is not going to cause any big problems, it will just have to be managed," he said.

"If you fly from the United States to Asia, flying over the North Pole, there are well over a dozen flights every day," he added.

"During these big radiation storms some of these airlines will reroute the flights away from the polar regions for safety reasons to make sure they can maintain communications.

"People operating satellites would keep an eye on this, too, because geomagnetic storming can interfere with satellites in various ways whether it is the satellite itself or the signal coming down from the receiver."

The aurora borealis (Northern Lights) and aurora australis (Southern Lights) will also likely be visible in the late hours of June 8 or 9, NASA said.

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