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Tag: sun flare

  • Wallops Island Launch Successful Today

    Wallops Island Launch Successful Today

    The launch that was scheduled for January 8th was delayed due to the massive solar flare that occurred on Tuesday. However, it has now launched a day later in an effort to get supplies to the crew at the space station.

    Orbital Sciences Corp. said the launch is going just as planned.

    “It was another excellent launch of Antares, and so far, our first CRS mission is off to a great start with Cygnus operating exactly as anticipated at this early stage of the mission,” said Mr. David W. Thompson, Orbital’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our team has put in a lot of hard work to get to the point of performing regular ISS cargo delivery trips for NASA. It’s an exciting day for all of us and I’m looking forward to completing this and our future CRS missions safely and successfully for our NASA customer.”

    The rocket lifted off into a brilliant blue sky from Wallops Island, Va., at 1:07 p.m. taking a capsule of supplies to the International Space Station, which included strangely enough, ants, for some kind of educational project. A webcast of the launch is available to view, as many reported seeing the rocket stream on Twitter.

    Although the original launch was scheduled for December, the space station repairs were not completed and took priority. The extreme cold weather also contributed to the delay.

    The biggest delay of yesterday’s plan to launch was the first major solar flare of the year. The solar storm released a flare that erupted from a sunspot that was seven times the size of Earth, and caused the mission a delay in fear of possible radiation problems.

    “Upon a deeper examination of the current space weather environment, Orbital’s engineering team, in consultation with NASA, has determined that the risk to launch success is within acceptable limits established at the outset of the Antares program,” Orbital officials announced late Wednesday.

    Image via NASA, Space.com

  • Aurora Borealis Could Be Lighting Up The Lower 48

    The Northern Lights might just give the lower states, predicted all the way to Colorado and possibly Washington, Illinois, and Michigan, a dazzling display thanks to a recent solar flare.

    That is for those states who have clear skies! The colorful, stunning lights of the aurora borealis are forecasted for Thursday and Friday, and could be putting on quite the show for those who haven’t had the opportunity to see this amazing display before. They are common in Alaska and the North Pole and South Pole, however.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center said, “The CME [coronal mass ejection] is forecast to set off G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm activity through January 9 and 10,” NOAA wrote on its prediction center site on Wednesday. “Aurora watchers should be ready.”

    The northern lights are caused by particles sent from the sun when a solar flare bursts away. Those charged particles hit earth’s atmosphere near the poles, where the magnetic fields are closest to the planet. When they intermingle with earth’s magnetic field a light show of unbelievable colors and lights can be seen.

    “These particles cannot travel through the atmosphere to harm humans on Earth, but they can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground,” NASA said in a statement. “When intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. This disrupts the radio signals for as long as the flare is ongoing, anywhere from minutes to hours.”

    Keep your eyes peeled for an amazing light show, compliments of the sun.

    Image via NASA , 2