Late on a crisp autumn night, the Big Sky did something it rarely does: it stunned even the people who study it for a living. A band of light rose above Montana’s northern horizon and morphed into ripples and ribs that didn’t match the usual playbook for the aurora borealis. Instruments clicked on, cameras ...
There are huge, invisible structures in the ionosphere that are high above the surface of the Earth. These structures are called equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs). These turbulent areas of low-density plasma can be up to 60 miles (100 km) wide and mess up GPS signals, scramble radio communications, and even cause deadly military accidents. Now, ...
For hundreds of years, the only time mankind could see the Sun’s corona, which is the highly hot and ethereal outer atmosphere, was during a total solar eclipse. But the European orbit Agency (ESA) has now gone above that boundary by making the first artificial solar eclipse in orbit. The Proba-3 mission, which began in ...
The Sun’s poles have long been a cosmic mystery buried from Earth’s perspective by the simple fact that our planet, along with every other spacecraft, orbits within the equatorial plane. Thanks to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Solar Orbiter spacecraft, however, mankind has now seen the solar south pole in history. Captured in March 2025, ...
The first time NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has observed a big magnetic burst in the sun’s corona, this event could fundamentally alter our understanding of solar storms and their impact on Earth. Against expectations, the spacecraft “touches” the sun’s atmosphere in daring close passes and finds a great surge of energy flinging high-speed plasma towards ...
Gargi Chakravorty
