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Perth: (The Conversation) Last week, three tiny Australian satellites from Curtin University's <keyword id="23932163" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Binar-Space-Program" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Binar Space Program" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Binar Space Program">Binar Space Program</keyword> burned up in Earth's atmosphere. That was always going to happen. In fact, Binar means "fireball" in the Noongar language of the First Nations people of Perth. When a satellite is in low Earth orbit (2,000km or less), it experiences orbital decay as it drags closer and closer to the surface, eventually burning up. But these cube satellites (<keyword id="21533654" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CubeSats" source="keywords">CubeSats</keyword>), known as Binar-2, 3 and 4, entered the atmosphere much sooner than originally planned. They only lasted for two months - a third of what was expected. This significantly reduced valuable time for science and testing new systems. The reason for their untimely demise? Our Sun has kicked into high gear, and the Binar satellites are far from the only casualty. Recent high <keyword id="20792842" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Solar-activity" source="keywords">solar activity</keyword> has been causing an unexpected headache for satellite operators in the last few years, and it's only increasing. <h2>Why is the Sun so active? </h2> Solar activity includes phenomena such as sunspots, solar flares and solar wind - the stream of charged particles that flows toward Earth. This activity is a product of the Sun's ever-changing magnetic field, and approximately every 11 years, it completely flips. At the midpoint of this cycle, solar activity is at its highest. While this cycle is known, specific solar activity is challenging to predict - the dynamics are complex and solar forecasting is in its infancy. In the last few months, indicators of solar activity were more than one and a half times higher than predictions for this point in the current cycle, labelled <keyword id="22712826" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="solar-cycle-25" source="keywords">solar cycle 25</keyword>. <h2>The impact of <keyword id="20087207" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="space-weather" source="keywords">space weather</keyword> </h2> Space weather refers to the environmental effects that originate from outside our atmosphere (mostly the Sun). It affects us on Earth in a variety of noticeable and unnoticeable ways. The most obvious is the presence of auroras. In the past few months, auroras have been visible far more intensely and closer to the equator than in the last two decades. This is a direct result of the increased solar activity. Space weather, and solar activity in particular, also creates additional challenges for satellites and satellite operators. Higher solar activity means more solar flares and stronger solar wind - resulting in a higher flux of charged particles that can damage or disrupt electrical components on satellites. It also means an increase in ionising radiation, resulting in a higher dose for astronauts and pilots, and potential disruptions to long-distance radio communications. But for satellites in low Earth orbit, the most consistent effect of solar activity is that the extra energy gets absorbed into the outer atmosphere, causing it to balloon outward. As a result, all satellites less than 1,000km from Earth experience a significant increase in <keyword id="23473319" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="atmospheric-drag" source="keywords">atmospheric drag</keyword>. This is a force that disrupts their orbit and causes them to fall towards the planet's surface. Notable satellites in this region include the International Space Station and the Starlink constellation. These satellites have thrusters to counteract this effect, but these corrections can be expensive. Low Earth orbit also contains many university satellites, such as the Binar CubeSats. Cube satellites are rarely equipped with tools that can adjust their altitude, so they're entirely at the mercy of space weather. <h2>What happened to Binar? </h2> The Binar Space Program is a satellite research program operating out of Curtin University. It aims to advance our understanding of the Solar System and lower the barrier for operating in space. The program began operations with its first satellite, Binar-1, in September 2021. This was less than a year into solar cycle 25 when solar activity was relatively low. In these conditions, the ten-centimetre cube satellite started at an altitude of 420km and survived a full 364 days in orbit. The program's follow-up mission - Binar-2, 3, and 4 - were three equally sized CubeSats. However, they were expected to last approximately six months owing to the extra surface area from new deployable solar arrays and a forecast increase in solar activity. Instead, they only made it to two months before burning up. While cube satellite missions are relatively cheap, the premature ending of a mission will always be costly. This is even more true for commercial satellites, highlighting the need for more accurate space weather forecasting. The good news is the Sun will calm down again. Despite the current unexpectedly high solar activity, it will likely slow down by 2026, and is expected to return to a solar minimum in 2030. While this was not an explicit goal of the mission, the Binar Space Program has now poignantly demonstrated the dramatic effects of solar activity on space operations. While the untimely loss of Binar-2, 3 and 4 was unfortunate, work has already begun on future missions. They are expected to launch into far more forgiving space weather. (The Conversation).

Right now, the Sun is far more active than predicted - and small satellites are paying the price

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The second moon that Earth has captured in its orbit this month is an asteroid called 2024 PT5.</li><li>Mini-moons like this could be ideal targets for asteroid mining to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-havent-we-been-to-mars-yet-2024-5">send humans deeper into space</a>.</li></ul>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/second-moon-orbiting-earth-when-why-what-to-know-2024-9 ">second moon that Earth now has for two months</a> may seem like just a fun curiosity, but it's also a sneak peek at a future space industry that could change our global economy.An asteroid called 2024 PT5, which normally orbits the sun as part of the Arjuna asteroid belt, was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-photograph-mini-moon-small-object-in-orbit-2020-2">captured in Earth's orbit</a> on Sunday, according to astronomers' projections. Astronomers expect it to spend about 57 days traveling along a horseshoe-shaped path around Earth before rejoining its asteroid belt.For those 57 days, the school-bus-sized <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-asteroid-impact-simulation-experts-fear-congress-would-delay-action-2024-6">asteroid</a> will be a "natural satellite" of Earth — basically another, temporary moon.<div type="image" title="screenshot of asteroid profile page showing illustration of a bumpy candy-corn-shaped grey asteroid in space with a text box labeling it 2024 PT5 and saying its average estimated diameter is 10.76 m" height="1537" width="2864" msid="113817839" hostid="261" sizebytes="68552"></div>That makes it economically intriguing. "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-moon-asteroid-orbiting-sun-alongside-earth-astronomers-discover-2023-6">Mini-moons</a>" like this are ideal targets for mining, according to Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, one of the scientists who charted 2024 PT5's path around our planet.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-company-earth-startups-raw-materials-cobalt-gold-platinum-2021-3">Asteroid mining</a> could someday help humans travel further out into the cosmos and extend our presence through the solar system. That's because some asteroids contain valuable metals like iron or platinum, as well as water.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's vision of a city on Mars</a>, for example, depends on asteroid mining. Temporary moons like 2024 PT5 could be a key stepping stone."Mini-moons are very important for the nascent global <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-helping-private-companies-build-business-moon-make-lunar-billions-2023-6">space economy</a>," Marcos told Business Insider in an email. Because they come so close to Earth and take a sojourn in our orbit, he added, "they are among the objects easier to reach using low-cost missions."<h2 id="462c4c69-18b1-4a3f-8e7d-7cb0491d6b39">Asteroids can be worth quintillions</h2>Asteroid 2024 PT5 may not be worth much, since scientists think it's made of basalt.It's basically "a giant boulder," Teddy Kareta, a planetary scientist at the Lowell Observatory, told Business Insider.But some asteroids contain so much metal that they're <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">worth more than our entire global economy</a>.Take Psyche, for example, an asteroid that NASA is sending a spacecraft to for scientific study, since the agency believes it to be the core of a long-dead planet.Psyche's metal-rich makeup — mostly iron and nickel — makes it worth an estimated $100 quintillion if it were here on Earth.<div type="image" title="graphic of what the asteroid is thought to look like" height="900" width="1600" msid="113817842" hostid="261" sizebytes="175866"></div>Some asteroids even have precious metals like platinum, gold, and cobalt.Nobody has mined an asteroid yet, though <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-osiris-rex-probe-landing-on-asteroid-kicking-dust-2020-10">NASA punched one</a> in 2020 to grab scientific samples from it.Some startups are trying to figure out how to start mining space rocks, and do it in a cost-effective way. Flying to an asteroid isn't cheap.One of them, called <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/asteroid-mining-startup-has-booked-its-first-test-mission-spacex-2022-6">AstroForge, has launched a small probe with SpaceX</a>, though the spacecraft wasn't able to conduct the testing they'd planned, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/asteroid-mining-astroforge-docking-mission-2025">Space.com</a>. The company is now planning two more missions, which it hopes will culminate in its first landing on a metallic asteroid in 2025.<h2 id="e5b0dd4a-bb61-4c4d-a49c-2d9e9a2960a9">Pit stops on the way to Mars</h2>Long-distance <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-invest-mars-pulsed-plasma-rocket-shorten-space-time-travel-2024-7">deep-space missions</a>, especially if they're carrying humans and cargo, will have a fuel problem.Fuel is heavy, so the less of it you have to load onto a spacecraft the better. On the long flight to Mars or other planets, asteroids could become gas stations.That's because <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/506/1/L6/6298231?login=false">research</a> <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018JE005584">suggests</a> that many asteroids in Earth's neighborhood are rich in water, which can be mined and split into its elementary components — hydrogen and oxygen, both of which are critical for making rocket fuel.Mini-moons are perfect places to start, some scientists think, because of their proximity to Earth but also because of how small they are.It takes an immense amount of rocket fuel to escape Earth's powerful gravitational pull. But little asteroids don't have much gravity, making it easy to leapfrog off of them."It only takes a puff of fuel to leave the mini-moon and head back towards Earth," Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at MIT, previously told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/undiscovered-minimoons-may-orbit-earth-could-they-help-us-become-an-interplanetary-species">Live Science</a>.<h2 id="bf8bc193-7a0a-4a09-9d9c-2c6ac7e8d411">Mini-moon missions at the ready</h2>One problem with mini-moons is that scientists sometimes don't see them coming until a few weeks before they're captured in our planet's orbit.Asteroid 2024 PT5, for example, was first identified as a mini-moon in early September and will only be in Earth's orbit for about 57 days.That's a tight timeline for preparing and launching a mining mission. For any asteroid, "you need to learn enough about it to know whether it's worth sending a rocket up," Kareta said.Asteroid-mining companies can work around that by having mining spacecraft ready in Earth's orbit, waiting for the right space rock to zoom by, Marcos said."Either if you are thinking about collecting mineral samples for research or starting a space mining venture, mini-moons are your best bet to get your business off the ground," he said.

Mini-moons like the one Earth just captured could be huge business opportunities

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A cluster of sunspots 15 times the size of <keyword id="6359982" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="earth" source="Orion">Earth</keyword> rolled into view.</li><li>These have been fizzing with activity and could send solar weather toward Earth as early as Saturday. </li></ul>A cluster of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-sunspot-four-times-size-of-earth-2023-5">sunspots</a> has rolled into view of Earth and may send a <keyword id="397045" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="solar-storm" source="Orion">solar storm</keyword> our way as early as Saturday. The cluster includes about a dozen sunspots that are around 125,000 miles wide— about 15 times bigger than our planet, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.space.com/enormous-sunspot-archipelago-solar-flares-earth">Space.com reported</a>. The group is very active. It had already shot out three M-class and several C-class solar flares before it came into view, per spaceweather.com. M-class flares are medium-sized eruptions. When directed toward Earth, they can cause brief radio blackouts, according to the <keyword id="59844" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="european-space-agency" source="Orion">European Space Agency</keyword>. C-class solar flares, meanwhile, are minor and have little effect when they hit Earth. <div type="image" title="An animated gif shows the sunspots scrolling across the sun" height="600" width="600" msid="105481961" hostid="261"></div>Space-weather experts will be keeping a close eye on the cluster as it lines up with Earth, Daniel Verscharen, an associate professor of space and climate physics at University College London, told Business Insider. "Groups of sunspots are regions that we pay close attention to. They are areas in the sun's photosphere where the magnetic field is particularly strong and often complex," he said. "These complex magnetic fields are more likely to become sources of flares and mass ejections," he said. Simulations from the European Space Agency, using the EUHFORIA computer code, suggest that if the cluster releases a mass ejection, it could reach Earth as early as Saturday evening ET (just after midnight Sunday morning), per Verscharen. Scientists will keep watching the cluster until it rolls away from Earth. The cluster should be in full alignment with the Earth within a day or two, Matt Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told Business Insider in an email. Verscharen and Owens noted that it's very difficult to predict the strength of solar weather that could come from the sunspots — if they release any Earth-directed particles at all. "The spots are fairly big and complex, which suggests they're likely to produce some space weather," said Owens. "Sometimes huge spots produce a tonne of activity before and after they pass Earth, but nothing at that critical time when they're pointed right at us," he added. As of Friday evening, the US and UK agencies that monitor space weather forecasted a low risk of any type of dangerous solar weather in the coming days. It is the latest in a slew of bizarre observations as our sun is getting closer to a near-decadal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-maximum-could-sooner-than-expected-2023-6">peak of solar activity</a>. Scientists have recently spotted brilliant auroras, solar <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-video-solar-tornado-plasma-2023-3">"tornados,"</a> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronal-holes-definition-causes-sun-earth-cme-storm-winds-2023-3">coronal holes,</a> and more. Solar weather is mostly harmless. The overwhelming majority of the charged particles sent by the sun are bounced back by the Earth's magnetic field. Every so often, solar flares and eruptions can temporarily overwhelm our planet's protection, and most of these events can be mildly disruptive, for instance causing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-flare-from-sunspot-caused-widespread-radio-blackouts-earth-2023-5">radio blackouts</a> that can affect the aviation industry. The concern is that a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-solar-maximum-2025-what-expect-cycle-2023-4">peak of solar</a> activity can increase the chance of a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rare-solar-storm-blast-power-grids-chance-higher-next-years-2023-8">very rare once-a-century solar storm</a>, which would be so strong that it could pierce through our planet's protection and surge our infrastructure, with little advanced warning. It's not clear how our electrical, communication, and satellite system would fare in that scenario, as such a storm hasn't been spotted in decades, in which time humans have become much more reliant on technology. Correction — November 27, 2023: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of days it would take for the sunspots to align with Earth. This was changed to reflect that they would align within a day or two.

A cluster of sunspots 15 times bigger than Earth could send a solar storm our way as early as Saturday

<ul class="summary-list"><li>NASA says <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sun-more-active-solar-storms-auroras-power-outages-grounded-flights-2023-2">the sun is in the highly active "maximum phase"</a> of its 11-year solar cycle.</li><li>That means there will probably be big solar storms bringing beautiful aurora in the next year or so.</li></ul>Thanks to the sun, we're in the middle of the best time to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saw-northern-lights-surprising-photos-misleading-2024-5">see the northern lights</a> — and maybe the worst time to be a satellite.NASA announced Tuesday that the sun is in the "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-maximum-could-sooner-than-expected-2023-6">maximum phase</a>" of its 11-year solar cycle, which basically means it's hyperactive.Our once-quiet star has been roiling with plasma arcs and sunspots and occasionally erupting, shooting <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/second-giant-coronal-hole-sun-solar-winds-space-weather-aurora-2023-3">energized particles out into space</a> — sometimes in Earth's direction.When those eruptions wash over our planet, they can trigger <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-aurora-northern-lights-rare-appearance-south-solar-storm-2023-3">beautiful aurora unusually far from the poles,</a> in more populated regions, like Arizona or California.<div type="image" title="Shreveport" height="2268" width="4032" msid="114291827" hostid="261" sizebytes="508996"></div>But <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sun-polar-vortex-video-from-solar-plasma-break-2023-2">solar eruptions</a> can also endanger satellites, astronauts, and even power grids here on Earth.NASA expects a lot of those explosions in the next six months to a year along with the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-earth-northern-southern-lights-auroras-how-to-see-2023-4">geomagnetic storms</a> they cause in Earth's upper atmosphere. That's how much longer the sun will likely be at maximum, but there's still potential for big eruptions in the ensuing years as the sun winds down."We anticipate additional solar and geomagnetic storms leading to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/northern-lights-sky-friday-us-solar-winds-giant-hole-sun-2023-3">opportunities to spot aurora</a> over the next several months, as well as potential technology impacts," Kelly Korreck, a program scientist in NASA's Heliophysics Division, said during the announcement on Tuesday.<h2 id="c28a25b0-3a8e-46c8-90f0-c090be8a9dfa">The problem with the aurora</h2>Solar eruptions, like solar flares or coronal mass ejections, don't directly harm anyone on Earth, but they disrupt a layer of the upper atmosphere called <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-hole-ionosphere-earth-atmosphere-physicist-2023-7">the ionosphere</a>.Some technologies, such as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/no-gps-on-moon-nasa-esa-artemis-plans-to-fix-2023-1">GPS</a> and high-frequency radios used for navigation, rely on the ionosphere and experience blackouts during some solar storms.That can <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flying-becoming-more-miserable-climate-crisis-delays-costs-turbulence-2024-8">delay flights</a>, since planes use both satellite and radio communications. Indeed, a 2023 <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=8e26d9ff6e66f84cefbfeefdbced737cfc1cea9d00c54bc32fab88e9e3d96541&amp;postID=670eb5b8434c477c232fed0c&amp;postSlug=nasa-declares-sun-maximum-what-solar-storms-mean-technology-auroras-2024-10&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41598-023-30424-2">study</a> found that flights were 21% more likely to be delayed by at least 30 minutes during solar storms.Solar storms can also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-cycle-active-grounded-flights-downed-satellites-2024-8">push satellites out of orbit</a>.In very severe cases, solar storms can affect power grids. In 1989, a geomagnetic storm wiped out Quebec's electricity and caused other power-system issues in the US, UK, and Sweden.Nothing that major has happened in a while. But this solar maximum has been one for the books. In May, an <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-northern-lights-dazzle-night-sky-across-the-us-europe-2024-5">extreme geomagnetic storm </a>brought the northern lights as far south as Arkansas.<div type="image" title="northern lights night sky with pink and purple glow above silhouette of treetops" height="1500" width="2000" msid="114291826" hostid="261" sizebytes="115744"></div>It was "the strongest solar storm to reach Earth in two decades and possibly one of the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years," said Elsayed Talaat, the director of the Office of Space Weather Observations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Unlike two decades ago, NOAA can better <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronal-hole-on-sun-blasts-solar-wind-toward-earth-2023-3">forecast geomagnetic storms</a> and industries can prepare for them before they strike. Still, the May solar storm disrupted high-precision GPS that some US farmers rely on, causing about $500 million in losses, according to Bill Murtagh, a program coordinator at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center."The bigger the storm, the more visible the aurora, the further south it's visible. At the same time, we can't be hoping for these big displays because with them comes the threat to our critical infrastructure," Murtagh said during Tuesday's announcement. "We always have to be careful with what we wish for. "<h2 id="7ab5ba6b-e0c1-46b9-a08a-6f2bc8739d3b">Why the sun is at maximum</h2>The sun has an 11-year cycle, where it builds from a quiet, placid minimum to a roaring maximum, then dies back down.The current <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/next-solar-maximum-2025-what-expect-cycle-2023-4">solar maximum</a> likely began in early 2023, as the sun began to display more and more sunspots, which are low-temperature regions on the sun's surface created by concentrated magnetic field lines.<div type="image" title="side by side images of the sun bright yellow smooth sphere. the left image labeled solar minimum is completely smooth. the right image labeled solar maximum has dark spots speckled across the sun's center." height="1080" width="1920" msid="114291824" hostid="261" sizebytes="33546"></div>"There's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sunspots-15-times-size-of-earth-solar-storm-into-view-2023-11">more sunspots emerging</a>, the magnetic field has more chances to interact and increase the probability of having a significant geomagnetic storm," Lisa Upton, the co-chair of the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel, which is an international panel of experts who have been keeping tabs on the sun, said during the announcement on Tuesday.NASA scientists couldn't confirm that the sun had reached maximum until they'd seen the number of sunspots start to plateau."It's by looking at the shape of that cycle, how it's progressed so far, and how we know that solar cycle progresses from our observations of the last 25 solar cycles, that we can really say that we're at the maximum phase now," Upton said.Eventually, scientists will be able to pinpoint an exact peak of the entire solar cycle, but not until many months after the maximum phase ends.

The sun is at its 11-year maximum. That means another year of eruptions that can endanger satellites, ground flights, and spark stunning auroras.

Chennai, <keyword id="6358064" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="isro" source="Orion">ISRO</keyword> has lined up a series of exploration missions including to Mars, Venus and to the Moon again, apart from the maiden human spaceflight programme, Chairman <keyword id="2618685" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="s-somanath" source="Orion">S Somanath</keyword> said. The space agency also has drawn up plans to launch missions for studying climate and weather conditions of the Earth, the space agency chief said, speaking to reporters on Sunday. Besides, ISRO is also working on regular scientific missions including communication, remote sensing satellites, Somanath, who is also the Secretary of the Department of Space, said here. Speaking about the Gaganyaan programme, he said the maiden TV-D1 test flight is scheduled for October 21. Elaborating about the upcoming missions undertaken by the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency, he said, "We have exploration missions. We have plans to go to Mars, Venus, again sometime to the Moon. We also have programmes to look at the climate and weather of Earth." Stressing that the scientists at ISRO would be focused on taking up regular missions like launching satellites for communications and remote sensing, he said scientific missions are also in the pipeline to look at issues like aeronomy, thermal imaging, and climate change impact assessment. "So many things are there and we are very busy doing all of this," he said. To a query about whether scientists were able to receive any kind of response from the Vikram lander of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which successfully made a soft-landing on the surface of the Moon on August 23, he said Vikram had done its job very well during the lunar day (equivalent of 14 Earth days) at which time it was programmed to perform its functions. "It is happily sleeping on the Moon. It has done its job very well. Maybe if it wishes to wake up, let it wake up. Until then, we will wait," he said. ISRO made efforts to re-establish communication with rover Pragyan and lander Vikram after they were put into sleep mode in September following the onset of night on the Moon. "No signals have been received from them. Efforts to establish contact will continue," ISRO had said. After the historic landing on August 23, lander Vikram and rover Pragyan performed different tasks on the lunar surface, including detecting the presence of sulphur and recording relative temperature. About ISRO's maiden mission to study the Sun, Somanath said the spacecraft is 'very healthy' and is on a 110-day long journey to the Lagrange point L1 and is expected to reach the intended destination by "middle of January." "It is a long journey. It is almost 110 days of journey and it has covered some distance now. We corrected a little bit of its trajectory, because early correction is important to reach the L1 point. After tracking, we find it is going in the right direction towards the L1 point," he said. Observing that the rocket is on a 'complex travel', Somanath said, "It takes almost another 70-75 days further to reach. By the middle of January, it will reach there. After that, we will make some corrections to make it enter into the Halo orbit at the L1 point." "After that instruments will be switched on and it will start doing the scientific data streaming. Currently, everything is very healthy on Aditya L1," he said. Aditya-L1 was launched on September 2, and it is the first Indian space-based observatory that will study the Sun from a halo orbit around the first <keyword id="19149915" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sun-earth-lagrangian" source="Orion">Sun-Earth Lagrangian</keyword> point (L1), which is located roughly 1.5 million km from the Earth. Earlier, Somanath visited the residence of renowned agricultural scientist <keyword id="86797" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="m-s-swaminathan" source="Orion">M S Swaminathan</keyword>, who passed away on September 28. He met the family members of the eminent plant geneticist known as the driving force behind India's 'Green Revolution', here in the city. "I am here today just to pay my tributes and my affection to his (M S Swaminathan's) contribution... Whoever works in whichever field whether it is space, agriculture or sustainability and many other domains, we all find a place to work together," he said. "Thank you so much for the opportunity. His (M S Swaminathan's) legacy will continue to inspire more young people in the country to work in science and technology." Somanath said.

ISRO 'very busy' with various exploration missions in pipeline: Chairman

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Four solar flares appeared to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-esa-solar-orbiter-captured-video-of-sun-eruptions-2021-5">erupt on the sun</a> at the same time on Monday night.</li><li>NASA video shows the simultaneous eruptions sent rapid bursts of bright light from the sun's surface.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/second-giant-coronal-hole-sun-solar-winds-space-weather-aurora-2023-3">The sun</a> is furiously demanding our attention again, flexing near the peak of its power with four eruptions at the same time.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sun-polar-vortex-video-from-solar-plasma-break-2023-2">Video footage from NASA</a>'s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows that, around 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday evening, four solar flares erupted at once across the visible surface of the sun.The rare quadruple eruption, shown below, is not an immediate <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sun-more-active-solar-storms-auroras-power-outages-grounded-flights-2023-2">danger to us on Earth</a>.<div type="image" title="gif of rotating blue sun shows sudden bright flashes from four regions of roiling bright blue light on the sun's disc" height="1024" width="1024" msid="109571395" hostid="261" sizebytes="115710"></div><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-time-lapse-video-sun-solar-cycle-10-years-2020-7">Solar flares</a> can send solar material screaming toward Earth, causing geomagnetic storms in our planet's atmosphere.That can lead to GPS disruptions and radio blackouts, or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/northern-lights-sky-friday-us-solar-winds-giant-hole-sun-2023-3">bring the beautiful northern lights further south</a>.Indeed, a radio blackout occurred shortly after the flares, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-earth-northern-southern-lights-auroras-how-to-see-2023-4">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a>, though it was not clear from the agency's report whether this was linked."These things are very difficult to forecast, but I wouldn't expect too much geomagnetic activity from these particular events," Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told Business Insider in an email. "We might get something of a glancing blow from one of them in a day or two."The SWPC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Though these eruptions were facing Earth, as of Wednesday morning the center wasn't <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spaceweather.gov/communities/space-weather-enthusiasts-dashboard">forecasting</a> any geomagnetic storms for the next three days.<h2>A 'super-sympathetic' solar flare event</h2>The simultaneous and powerful flares probably resulted from one underlying trigger, in a phenomenon known as a "sympathetic solar flare."Magnetic loops at the outermost part of the sun, called the corona, can connect sunspots or filaments. When one explodes, it creates an instability in these magnetic forces that can set off other eruptions, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&amp;day=23&amp;month=04&amp;year=2024">Spaceweather.com</a> explains.It's a "domino effect," Owens said, "where one region becomes unstable and sets off activity in a bunch of other locations, often at great distance."Sympathetic solar flares usually involve only two concurrent explosions, making this flare a "super-sympathetic" one."This is indeed a fascinating event. It's quite rare to find sympathetic flaring at four locations," Daniel Verscharen, a physicist and associate professor of space plasma at University College London, told BI in an email.Scientists still don't understand the exact mechanism behind sympathetic flares."A likely explanation is that one flare erupts and triggers a disturbance that travels through the solar corona," Verscharen said. "This disturbance could be a shock wave that travels from the first flare around the sun. When this disturbance encounters another active region, it may trigger that region to become unstable and erupt as well."<h2>The sun is peaking</h2>Though this event appears striking, it's exactly the right time for rare events on the sun. Our star is near <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-maximum-could-sooner-than-expected-2023-6">solar maximum</a>, the peak of its 11-year cycle, where it becomes hyperactive.That's why the last year has brought a barrage of solar flares, eruptions, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronal-hole-on-sun-blasts-solar-wind-toward-earth-2023-3">coronal holes that send winds of plasma</a> and magnetically charged particles washing over Earth.Scientists aren't yet sure whether the sun has already hit solar maximum, but if it hasn't, then maximum is likely to occur within the next year.From then on, solar activity will decline for years, meaning less radio and GPS disruption on Earth, as well as far fewer chances to see the northern lights.

NASA video shows the sun just blasted out 4 eruptions at the same time. The rare event may have sent plasma hurtling toward Earth.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Earth is getting a second moon, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-moon-asteroid-orbiting-sun-alongside-earth-astronomers-discover-2023-6">a mini-moon asteroid</a> called 2024 PT5, on September 29.</li><li>This asteroid from the Arjuna asteroid belt will follow a horseshoe path around Earth for 57 days.</li></ul>Earth is about to pluck a second moon from an asteroid belt — but we only get this <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-photograph-mini-moon-small-object-in-orbit-2020-2">mini-moon</a> for 57 days.It's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/potentially-hazardous-asteroids-fly-by-earth-this-week-watch-live-2024-6">an asteroid</a> about the size of a school bus, at 35 feet long, and it has a typical, un-snazzy asteroid name: 2024 PT5.Earth is poised to pick up this hitchhiker from the nearby Arjuna <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-visit-psyche-asteroid-worth-more-than-entire-world-economy-2023-10">asteroid belt</a> on September 29.According to a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad781f">paper</a> published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society this month, the 2024 PT5 asteroid will then be in the grasp of Earth's gravity, following a horseshoe-like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/animation-shows-moon-orbits-barycenter-below-earth-surface-2021-3">path around our planet</a> until November 25, when it will return to an orbit around the sun.<div type="image" title="screenshot of asteroid profile page showing illustration of a bumpy candy-corn-shaped grey asteroid in space with a text box labeling it 2024 PT5 and saying its average estimated diameter is 10.76 m" height="1537" width="2864" msid="113609379" hostid="261" sizebytes="68552"></div>"You may say that if a true <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-artificial-star-earth-orbit-help-astronomy-science-calibrate-telescope-2024-6">satellite</a> is like a customer buying goods inside a store, objects like 2024 PT5 are window shoppers," Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, the paper's lead author, told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/earth-mini-moon-asteroid-2024-pt5">Space.com</a>.The asteroid poses no threat to Earth.<h2 id="2a322604-0537-4de0-b3ff-12eba524a529">You'll probably only see the mini-moon in photos</h2>This mini-moon is nothing like <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">our real moon</a>. It's super mini. Forget about spotting it with your naked eye or even a pair of binoculars.In fact, according to Dan Bartlett, an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tried-see-green-comet-fail-2023-2">astrophotographer in California</a>, asteroid 2024 PT5 is so faint that it's "well beyond the limits of most of the best amateur telescopes."That won't stop him from trying to photograph it, though.From his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/darkest-skies-by-state-watch-space-events-stargazing">dark-skies </a>vantage point in the middle of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Bartlett thinks he might be able to catch the asteroid by imaging all night long with his sophisticated telescope equipment on an extra-dark night when the main moon is not in the sky."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-photograph-full-moon-according-to-astrophotographers-top-tips-2024-9">The image probably won't look like much</a> but you never know until you try," Bartlett told BI in an email.However, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/images-show-james-webb-space-telescope-stronger-sharper-than-hubble-2022-7">telescopes</a> used by professional astronomers should be able to image 2024 PT5 easily, according to Marcos.<div type="image" title="four pixelated blurry images of white dots in distant space with one long dot circled in purple in the center" height="928" width="936" msid="113609377" hostid="261" sizebytes="78262"></div>So stay tuned for pictures.<h2 id="90a35d03-b346-44fa-a648-63841dcaf537">When the mini-moon returns</h2>The asteroid won't make its closest <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/adam-driver-asks-nasa-save-earth-from-world-ending-asteroids-2023-3">approach to Earth</a> until after it loses mini-moon status, though.On January 8, 2025, according to NASA, it will skim past Earth at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers).For reference, the main moon (the big one you see in the sky at night) is, on average, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mind-boggling-nasa-photo-shows-moon-distance-from-earth-2022-10">about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away from us</a>. It will probably still be impossible to see with binoculars or the naked eye.After that, our temporary moonlet won't fly by again until 2055.It's not our first mini-moon and it won't be the last. Another asteroid, called 2022 NX1, briefly fell into Earth's orbit in 2022. Astronomers declared it to be a mini-moon, or a "short-term natural satellite," and determined that it would return again in 2051.The situation brings Bartlett to a simple conclusion, which you may have reached too: "Space is neat," he said.

Earth is about to get a 2nd moon, for 57 days only. Here's what you need to know.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A tornado on the sun released a cloud of hot gas about six times the size of the Earth into space. </li><li>The cloud was released alongside a powerful coronal mass ejection. </li></ul>NASA captured an enormous tornado on the sun's surface that released a cloud of hot charged gas about six times the size of the Earth.The gas cloud was spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on Thursday.It was accompanied by a powerful coronal mass ejection, an explosion that sends charged particles barreling through space, per space weather website <a target="_blank" href="https://spaceweather.com/">spaceweather.com.</a><div type="image" title="A video of the sun shows a cloud of charged plasma flying away into space." height="290" width="386" msid="106382365" hostid="261" sizebytes="5540"></div>The cloud of gas was not launched toward Earth, so isn't dangerous for humans. Still, it is a symptom of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sun-more-active-solar-storms-auroras-power-outages-grounded-flights-2023-2">sun's current state of restlessness,</a> which is increasing as it nears a peak of activity.Every twelve years or so, the sun's poles flip. This causes our star to fizz with more solar explosions, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sunspots-15-times-size-of-earth-solar-storm-into-view-2023-11">sunspots</a>, flares, and storms than when it is quiet. Eventually, the sun reaches a peak of activity and starts settling down again.Scientists predict this <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-maximum-could-sooner-than-expected-2023-6">peak should happen</a> within the next year or so. In the meantime, they are keeping a close eye.Solar weather is mostly harmless for humans, but a peak of solar activity increases the risk of a very rare, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rare-solar-storm-blast-power-grids-chance-higher-next-years-2023-8">once-in-a-lifetime solar storm</a> so powerful it could short power grids and knock out communication systems.Solar observation systems are currently poorly equipped to predict such a storm, which could be felt on Earth very quickly.The increased solar activity could also put deep-space astronauts at more risk being exposed to radiation, a major hindrance at a time when space agencies aim to send astronauts to the moon. NASA, for instance, wants to launch its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.space.com/news/live/nasa-artemis-2-moon-mission-updates">Artemis 2 mission</a> to fly astronauts around the moon in 2024.The term "solar tornado" is only a nickname for the structure spotted on the sun, which is still poorly understood, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/expertiseguide/life-sciences/dr-sara-goodacre.aspx">experts previously told Business Insider</a>."What we're seeing here is polar crown filament (PCF). A filament is a huge, twisted magnetic stricture that sits above the sun's surface, sometimes for months," Mathew Owens, a professor of space physics at the University of Reading, told BI in an email in March.Plasma can be released when these magnetic fields come under too much tension and eventually break apart, Owens told BI.The term "tornado" suggests the structure spins, but this might be a misnomer, Sven Wedemeyer, a professor of solar physics from the University of Oslo who has studied this phenomenon, told BI in March."You basically have two possibilities. Either you have some structure that's held together by magnetic fields that's actually truly rotating, or what you're seeing is plasma — hot gas — that's following some pre-twisted magnetic field and gives the appearance to be rotating, but is just moving up and down like a slight spiral," said Wedemeyer. "One theory is if there's true rotation in there, this may trigger or destabilize the whole structure, which may contribute to this eruption," said Wedemeyer.

A huge tornado on the sun released a cloud of hot gas 6 times the size of the Earth

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-heading-earth-bright-outshine-stars-scientists-c-2023-a32023-3">Comet A3, or Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS</a>, is visible in the Northern Hemisphere this October.</li><li>The comet takes 80,000 years to orbit the sun, so Neanderthals were among the last people to see it.</li></ul>A rare comet is gleaming in our skies this October, it's your only chance to ever see it, and it might be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saw-northern-lights-surprising-photos-misleading-2024-5">visible to the naked eye</a>.Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, or Comet A3, is a dusty ball of ice from the Oort Cloud that takes about 80,000 years to orbit the sun. That means some of the last people to see it were <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/last-neanderthal-thorin-unique-dna-help-explain-species-extinction-2024-9">Neanderthals</a>.This is the best opportunity in years, and possibly in a decade, to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-comet-ztf-viewing-where-when-how-see-2023-1">see a bright comet in the sky</a>. Experts are hopeful that Comet A3 will be "highly memorable" and "a real crowd pleaser," according to Dan Bartlett, an astrophotographer who tracks comets.But you <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tried-see-green-comet-fail-2023-2">need to be prepared</a>."It's just hard to make the time to be in the right place, to have the right experience," Teddy Kareta, a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomer-animations-reveal-solar-system-physics-2021-10">planetary scientist</a> who specializes in comets at the Lowell Observatory, told Business Insider.When Kareta has talked to people who have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/devil-comet-visible-during-total-solar-eclipse-how-see-2024-4">seen a truly great comet</a>, though, "there's just nothing like it," he said.Here's everything you should know to be in the right place at the right time and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-when-to-see-green-comet-mars-together-night-sky-2023-2">spot the comet</a>.<h2 id="11d1e1ae-eb70-4e43-aa3a-ab5cb2a93f24">How bright is Comet A3?</h2>Nobody is certain about how bright this comet will be, but Kareta says it has the potential to be the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-green-comet-nishimura-2023-9">brightest comet</a> in a decade.The last big, bold comet was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-surprise-appearance-earth-unprepared-for-asteroids-2020-7">NEOWISE in 2020</a>. It was visible to the naked eye and produced stunning photos like this:<div type="image" title="comet neowise belarus" height="1911" width="3000" msid="113849897" hostid="261" sizebytes="285386"></div>Astronomers are divided about whether Comet A3 will shine as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-passing-close-to-earth-dazzling-photos-videos-2020-7">bright as Comet NEOWISE</a>.In recent weeks, A3 has at times been brighter than predicted and at other times matched predictions, according to the BBC's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/beginners-guide-comet-c-2023-a3">Sky at Night Magazine</a> and Robert Massey, the deputy executive director of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_mGtE7282Q&amp;ab_channel=RoyalAstronomicalSociety">Royal Astronomical Society</a>.From a dark-sky vantage point at Mono Lake, California — tucked into the Sierra Nevadas — Bartlett says he can see the comet with binoculars already.But comets can change quickly, in a matter of hours. That's because their brightness depends on what type and amount of gas or dust they're emitting, and that can change on a dime.For example, in 2007 Comet Holmes suddenly flared up and became 500,000 times brighter in just two days because a pocket of gas inside it had breached its surface, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/20347-comet-brightness-predictions-difficult.html">Space.com</a>."Sometimes people will say that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-everest-sky-how-to-see-it-12p-pons-brooks-2024-3">predicting comets</a> is kind of like playing the lottery," Kareta said.<h2 id="f9be457b-ee58-4abd-b650-c3903d50bfb8">When and where to see Comet A3</h2>Weather permitting, everyone in the Northern Hemisphere should be able to see Comet A3 in October.There are two windows to catch it, one from now through October 2 and another from October 12 to 30, according to a press release from Massey.During the first window, the comet appears above the eastern horizon during a 15-minute window that begins one hour before sunrise, according to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.space.com/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-brightening-perihelion-how-to-see">Space.com</a>.However, the best opportunity to see the comet, when it's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.astronomy.com/observing/comet-tsuchinshan-atlas-may-soon-become-bright/">closest to Earth</a>, is during the second window. After sunset, it will shine in the west, just to the left of the Big Dipper's handle, making for a more schedule-friendly viewing time.<h2 id="f584376a-e5c8-4cf2-9b77-2d6434dabfc3">Where to go and what to bring</h2>For the best viewing, you should drive far from the city and gaze into a very dark sky. Check Business Insider's list of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/darkest-skies-by-state-watch-space-events-stargazing">dark-sky spots in each state</a>.<div type="image" title="night sky with meteors shooting stars bright white streaks and one extra bright fireball above a rocky hillside of evergreen trees" height="681" width="1024" msid="113849895" hostid="261" sizebytes="82586"></div>If that's not an option, though, find a relatively dark spot outside the worst of the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-dark-skies-look-like-how-many-more-stars-than-cities-suburbs">city lights</a> — maybe on a hill or just outside the city — where you can face away from any major light sources to look toward Comet A3."Even if you live in an area with lots and lots of street lights, lots of smog, lots of smoke, lots of whatever, you still ought to go for it," Kareta said.Check the weather before you go. If it will be cloudy all night, for example, you may want to plan for another evening. Bring warm layers and a chair or blanket to lay back on. Without support, you might be surprised how quickly your neck gets tired of craning back to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-see-exploding-star-nova-nasa-says-expect-soon-2024-3">look at the stars</a>.If you have binoculars or a telescope, bring them. There's no guarantee of naked-eye visibility. In some cities, you can check out binoculars or a telescope from your local library.Especially if you're a beginner, you may want to download a skywatching app like Sky Safari ($4.99 in the App Store) or pull up a website like Stellarium (free) on your phone. Once you're on the ground, that will help you pinpoint where the comet is in the sky.<h2 id="b4523206-0dfd-4a5e-acaf-d6a8ee9de2a4">How to look for the comet</h2>Finding a comet in the sky is harder than you might think. You'll need to know a few tips and techniques.Once you reach your comet-watching spot, it can help to open your skywatching app to identify exactly where the comet is in the sky, near a constellation you recognize — like the Big Dipper.Then give your eyes at least 30 minutes to adjust to the dark. Try not to look at your phone. Even a small burst of blue light is enough to reset your eyes.If the comet doesn't immediately jump out to you, try scanning around the area. Your peripheral vision is more sensitive to faint objects, so you might spot it in the corner of your eye.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/green-comet-ztf-what-look-like-see-photos-2023-1">You're looking for</a> a smudge, slightly bigger than a star. It won't twinkle like the stars do, and it will look a bit blurrier, with less defined borders. It might appear elongated because of the comet's tail, which is dust and gas flowing off its icy body."If you look at it and it looks like it's behaving differently than some of the stars nearby, that's a really good sign that you've picked up on the right thing," Kareta said.If you're still not sure, try taking a long-exposure photo with your phone. This is built into most phone cameras' nighttime settings. (Hint: Turn your brightness down to protect your eyes.)The long exposure will provide a clearer image of the comet than your eyes can.If you can't find Comet A3 at all, Kareta recommends trying again a few days later."Go one night out, and then take a night off, and go back out. You'll know better how to time it, how to get ready," he said.<h2 id="4dc3ee16-f7a1-4a12-9138-5ef798a3a762">How to photograph the comet</h2>If your phone isn't picking up the comet, a DSLR camera might do the trick. Massey recommends taking a series of exposures.You can also hold your phone camera up to the lens of your binoculars or telescope to take a picture through it. That method can be tricky, so it helps to practice a bit in advance.After this, Comet A3 won't return for tens of thousands of years. "See it now or lose your chance," Kareta said.

You Searched For "earth sun" and got 9 results

Right now, the Sun is far more active than predicted - and small satellites are paying the price

PTI

Mini-moons like the one Earth just captured could be huge business opportunities

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

A cluster of sunspots 15 times bigger than Earth could send a solar storm our way as early as Saturday

Marianne Guenot

The sun is at its 11-year maximum. That means another year of eruptions that can endanger satellites, ground flights, and spark stunning auroras.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

ISRO 'very busy' with various exploration missions in pipeline: Chairman

PTI

NASA video shows the sun just blasted out 4 eruptions at the same time. The rare event may have sent plasma hurtling toward Earth.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen,Hannah …

Earth is about to get a 2nd moon, for 57 days only. Here's what you need to know.

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

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