space weather Archives

Gamma-ray burst strikes Earth from distant exploding star

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics

Blast From The Past: Gamma-ray Burst GRB 221009A From A Distant Exploding Star Struck Earth

by Keith CowingNovember 15, 2023November 15, 2023

An enormous burst of gamma rays, detected by ESA’s Integral space telescope, has struck Earth. The blast caused a significant disturbance in our planet’s ionosphere. Such disturbances are usually associated […]

Relations between Hα, X-ray, and white-light energies for solar and stellar flares. (left) The relation between Hα and Bolometric X-ray energies (0.1–100 keV = 0.124–124 ˚A). Data of superflares on the G-dwarf EK Dra detected in this study are represented by red squares. Other solar and stellar data are taken from Kawai et al. (2022). The function fitted to the observational data with a power-law is shown by the cyan line. (right) The relation between bolometric white-light and Hα energies. Data of superflares on the G-dwarf EK Dra, which are associated with filament/prominence eruptions, are represented by filled red squares, whereas those without eruptions are represented by open red squares (this study, Namekata et al. 2022d, Namekata et al. 2022c). For E1, the total energy including the blueshift component is plotted as the upper limit, with the radiative energy of the central component from the two-component fit being plotted as the lower limit. Data of M-dwarf flares are taken from Maehara et al. (2021), Namizaki et al. (2023), and (Notsu et al. 2023). Solar flare data are taken from Namekata et al. (2022a). The function fitted to the observational data, excluding flare E1, with a power-law is shown by the cyan line. -- astro-ph.SR

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report

Multi-wavelength Campaign Observations of a Young Solar-type Star, EK Draconis I. Discovery of Prominence Eruptions Associated with Superflares

by Keith CowingNovember 15, 2023

Young solar-type stars frequently produce superflares, serving as a unique window into the young Sun-Earth environments. Large solar flares are closely linked to coronal mass ejections (CMEs) associated with filament/prominence […]

3D view of a typical simulation setup. SW density distribution (color scale), Earth magnetic field lines (red lines), and Sun magnetic field (pink lines). The bold pink arrows indicate the orientation of the IMF (Southward orientation). The green lines indicate the SW velocity stream lines. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Extinction events, Habitable Zones, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report

On Earth’s Habitability Over The Sun’s Main-sequence History: Joint Influence Of Space Weather And Earth’s Magnetic Field Evolution

by Keith CowingNovember 8, 2023

The aim of this study is to analyze the Earth habitability with respect to the direct exposition of the Earth atmosphere to the solar wind along the Sun’s evolution on […]

Biophysics, Habitable Zones, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Press Release, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics

The Largest Ever Solar Storm Detected In 14,300-year-old Tree Rings

by Keith CowingOctober 11, 2023October 11, 2023

An international team of scientists have discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago by analysing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps.

STEREO A/SWAVES (location A in red), Wind/WAVES (location in green), and STEREO B/SWAVES (location B in blue) dynamic radio spectra from ≈ 10 MHz down to 10 kHz. The visible IP type II burst lanes are indicated with arrows. -- physics.space-ph

Habitable Zones, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Separating The Effects Of Earthside And Far Side Solar Events. A Case Study

by Keith CowingOctober 10, 2023October 10, 2023

On 8 November 2013 a halo-type coronal mass ejection (CME) was observed, together with flares and type II radio bursts, but the association between the flares, radio bursts, and the […]

Evolution of the inertial-frame mode frequencies σ in units of the dynamical frequency Ωdyn (top panel) and the absolute value of the ℓ = m = 2 tidal overlap coefficients Qℓ,m (bottom panel) for the set of f-modes and i-modes we include during the pre-MS to MS evolution of the Prot,0 = 5 day (left) and 1 day (right) sets of stellar models. In the bottom panel, a subset of these modes are plotted. For the Prot,0 = 1 day models, i-modes that experience avoided crossings are plotted with a circle marker in the bottom panel. -- astro-ph.EP

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Tidal Migration Of Exoplanets Around M-dwarfs: Frequency-dependent Tidal Dissipation

by Keith CowingOctober 10, 2023October 10, 2023

The orbital architectures of short-period exoplanet systems are shaped by tidal dissipation in their host stars.

Conceptual and geographic layout of the study system. Space weather from the sun, such as coronal mass ejections, disturb Earth’s magnetic field, causing the auroras and potentially decreasing the magnetic field’s reliability for migrating birds. Artwork by John Megahan, University of Michigan, from Gulson-Castillo et al. in PNAS, October 2023.

Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

Space Weather From Our Local Star Disrupts Nocturnal Bird Migration On Earth

by Keith CowingOctober 10, 2023October 9, 2023

It’s well-known that birds and other animals rely on Earth’s magnetic field for long-distance navigation during seasonal migrations.

Broadband light curves of the flare-affected transits of TRAPPIST-1b and f. The transit models are shown in orange, and the exponential fit to the integrations in both the transit and flare is shown in blue. The exponential fit is necessary to determine the shape of the transit light curve. As shown in the O-C diagrams at the bottom, we use an initial guess of c1 and c2 to fit the exponential, then subtract the exponential to obtain final values of c1 and c2. We note c1 and c2 represent the coefficients of the quadratic limb darkening equation. The first and third O-C diagrams are directly comparable and show the light curve with the final transit model removed. The middle O-C diagram shows an intermediate step in the determination of the TRAPPIST-1f transit model fit in which the initial guess on the transit model is subtracted prior to fitting and subtracting the exponential. The residuals of the middle panel therefore show the quality of the exponential fit. -- astro-ph.SR

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Characterizing The Near-infrared Spectra Of Flares From TRAPPIST-1 During JWST Transit Spectroscopy Observations

by Keith CowingOctober 9, 2023October 9, 2023

We present the first analysis of JWST near-infrared spectroscopy of stellar flares from TRAPPIST-1 during transits of rocky exoplanets. Four flares were observed from 0.6–2.8 μm with NIRISS and 0.6–3.5 […]

The evolution of M dwarf X-ray activity over time. Early M dwarfs are plotted on the left, and mid-late M dwarfs on the right. Lighter-colored error bars indicate when the ‘average’ uncertainty value was applied to a target for fitting purposes. A two-component, segmented linear model was applied to each subset and is plotted. Each subset shows an initial “saturation phase” where high activity levels are sustained for a period of time, before an inflection point is reached. After this, the activity decreases at an accelerated rate. It is worth noting that many studies assume a constant level of activity during the saturation phase, where our fits indicate that a slight decrease occurs. The saturation phase is found last ∼470 Myr for the early M dwarfs and ∼2.1 Gyr for the mid-late M dwarfs. -- astro-ph.EP

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Radiation, Space Weather & Heliophysics, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1

Living With A Red Dwarf: X-ray, UV, And Ca II Activity-Age Relationships Of M Dwarfs

by Keith CowingOctober 9, 2023October 9, 2023

The vast majority of stars in the nearby stellar neighborhood are M dwarfs. Their low masses and luminosities result in slow rates of nuclear evolution and minimal changes to the […]

Water content map on the surface of the Moon. CREDIT Li, et al., 2023

Artemis & Lunar Exploration, Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Press Release, Space Weather & Heliophysics

Electrons From Earth May Be Forming Water On The Moon

by Keith CowingSeptember 14, 2023September 14, 2023

A team of researchers, led by a University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa planetary scientist, discovered that high energy electrons in Earth’s plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes on […]

space weather

Blast From The Past: Gamma-ray Burst GRB 221009A From A Distant Exploding Star Struck Earth

Multi-wavelength Campaign Observations of a Young Solar-type Star, EK Draconis I. Discovery of Prominence Eruptions Associated with Superflares

On Earth’s Habitability Over The Sun’s Main-sequence History: Joint Influence Of Space Weather And Earth’s Magnetic Field Evolution

The Largest Ever Solar Storm Detected In 14,300-year-old Tree Rings

Separating The Effects Of Earthside And Far Side Solar Events. A Case Study

Tidal Migration Of Exoplanets Around M-dwarfs: Frequency-dependent Tidal Dissipation

Space Weather From Our Local Star Disrupts Nocturnal Bird Migration On Earth

Characterizing The Near-infrared Spectra Of Flares From TRAPPIST-1 During JWST Transit Spectroscopy Observations

Living With A Red Dwarf: X-ray, UV, And Ca II Activity-Age Relationships Of M Dwarfs

Electrons From Earth May Be Forming Water On The Moon

NASA Is Forfeiting Its Global Astrobiology Leadership

Curiosity Rover Catches A Stunning Martian Dawn

NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,219 2 October 2026 (Space Life Science Research Results)

Possible News From The Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences Meeting

Tricorder Tech: An Electrical Technique For Identifying Signs Of Life In Space