Interplanetary Science / Archive
The quietly corrosive Sun
from Interplanetary Science
The most violent eruptions of particles from the surface of the Sun — known as coronal mass ejections — pose a radiation hazard to astronauts and jet passengers, and knock out power systems. These space weather events commonly occur when the sun is in the most active phase of its...
Article Posted: 22-07-2008
Monitoring the space scrapheap
from Interplanetary Science
Did you think space was empty? Think again! The flotsam and jetsam left over from spacecraft launches, dead satellites and the wreckage generated by collisions between satellites and other pieces of space junk litters the region of space surrounding the Earth. Scientists working ...
Article Posted: 18-07-2007
Stones from the sky
from Interplanetary Science
Meteorites are rocks that arrive on the Earth’s surface from interplanetary space. Most are fragments of debris from the asteroid belt, but some, much rarer, meteorites are from the Moon and even Mars. These are smashed away during impacts with other bodies. Then they drift thro...
Article Posted: 15-02-2007
Space weather
from Interplanetary Science
Just a tiny fraction of the matter and energy hurled out into space by the Sun is intercepted by the Earth, but that fraction is all we need. And sometimes it’s almost too much. Earth’s magnetic field (‘magnetosphere’) protects us against highly energetic particles from the Sun t...
Article Posted: 15-02-2007
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