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Extreme Space Weather at Mercury Blasts the Planet’s Poles

By Guest PostOctober 4, 2011Scienceatmosphere, aurora borealis, charged particles, earth, exosphere, fast imaging plasma spectrometer, fips, fundamental science about the sun, jim raines, magnetosphere, mercury, messenger spacecraft, NASA, oxygen particles, polar regions, sodium, solar system, solar wind sandblasts, space environment, squall of hot plasma, surface of planet mercury, thomas zurbuchen, university of michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— The solar wind sandblasts the surface of planet Mercury at its poles, according to new data from a University of Michigan instrument on board NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft.

The sodium and oxygen particles the blistering solar wind kicks up are the primary components of Mercury’s wispy atmosphere, or “exosphere,” the new findings assert. Through interacting with the solar wind, they become charged in a mechanism that’s similar to the one that generates the Aurora Borealis on Earth. (more…)

Spacecraft will Enable Scientists to Study Space Environment around Moon, Earth

By Guest PostNovember 2, 20102 commentsScienceacceleration, artemis, artemis spacecraft, aurora borealis, earth, electrodynamics, Environment, events, gravity, lunar environment, macroscale interactions, magnetic field, mission, moon environment, NASA, particle acceleration, reconnection, satellites, Space, spacecraft, substorms, sun-earth-moon, themis, time history, turbulence, vassilis angelopoulos

Two spacecraft are now beginning to study the moon’s environment as part of NASA’s ARTEMIS mission, whose principal investigator is Vassilis Angelopoulos, a UCLA professor of Earth and space sciences.

One of these satellites has been in the lunar environment since Aug. 25, and the second arrived Oct. 22, marking the start of the ARTEMIS mission to gather new scientific data in the sun-Earth-moon environment.

About the image: An artist’s rendering of the two ARTEMIS spacecraft in the lunar environment. Image credit: NASA/SVS (more…)

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Extreme Space Weather at Mercury Blasts the Planet’s Poles

Spacecraft will Enable Scientists to Study Space Environment around Moon, Earth