Feb 12, 2025 07:19 PM
Earth grew an extra, never-before-seen 'radiation belt' after last year's supercharged solar storm — and it's probably still there
https://www.livescience.com/space/earth-...till-there
INTRO: Earth grew a pair of extra "radiation belts" after a supercharged solar storm rocked our planet's magnetic field last year, data from a resurrected NASA spacecraft reveal. And one of the invisible bands, which is unlike any similar structure seen before, might still be there.
In May 2024, Earth was hit with its biggest geomagnetic storm in 21 years after a barrage of solar storms slammed into our planet, disrupting the magnetosphere and painting some of the most widespread aurora displays in the last 500 years. The geomagnetic disturbance also caused GPS-reliant machinery to malfunction.
In a new study published Feb. 6 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, researchers analyzed new data collected by NASA's Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) satellite and discovered that two temporary radiation belts also emerged around our planet following the storms. The belts were created when charged particles from the solar outbursts became trapped by Earth's magnetic field... (MORE - details)
Material from Alpha Centauri is already here
https://www.universetoday.com/170799/mat...eady-here/
EXCERPTS: The Alpha Centauri (AC) star system is our nearest stellar neighbour and consists of three stars: Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, which are in a binary relationship, and Proxima Centauri, a dim red dwarf. The entire AC system is moving toward us, and it presents an excellent opportunity to study how material might move between Solar Systems.
New research to be published in the Planetary Science Journal examines how much material from AC could reach our Solar System and how much might already be here. It’s titled “A Case Study of Interstellar Material Delivery: Alpha Centauri.” The authors are Cole Greg and Paul Wiegert from the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
“Interstellar material has been discovered in our Solar System, yet its origins and details of its transport are unknown,” the authors write. “Here we present Alpha Centauri as a case study of the delivery of interstellar material to our Solar System.” AC likely hosts planets and is moving toward us at a speed of 22 km s?1, or about 79,000 km per hour. In about 28,000 years it will reach its closest point and be about 200,000 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun. According to Greg and Wiegert, material ejected from AC can and will reach us, and some is already here.
AC is considered a mature star system about five billion years old that hosts planets. Mature systems are expected to eject less material, but since AC has three stars and multiple planets, it likely ejects a considerable amount of material.
[...] the research shows that some material can reach us and is already here. Most of it travelled for less than 10 Myr to reach us, but it has to be larger than about 10 microns to survive the journey. It also estimates that about 10 particles from Alpha Centauri become detectable meteors in Earth’s atmosphere currently, with that number increasing by a factor of ten in the next 28,000 years.
This research presents a concrete example of how our Solar System is anything but isolated. If material from star systems can move freely to and from one another, it opens up another window into the planet formation process... (MORE - missing details)
https://www.livescience.com/space/earth-...till-there
INTRO: Earth grew a pair of extra "radiation belts" after a supercharged solar storm rocked our planet's magnetic field last year, data from a resurrected NASA spacecraft reveal. And one of the invisible bands, which is unlike any similar structure seen before, might still be there.
In May 2024, Earth was hit with its biggest geomagnetic storm in 21 years after a barrage of solar storms slammed into our planet, disrupting the magnetosphere and painting some of the most widespread aurora displays in the last 500 years. The geomagnetic disturbance also caused GPS-reliant machinery to malfunction.
In a new study published Feb. 6 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, researchers analyzed new data collected by NASA's Colorado Inner Radiation Belt Experiment (CIRBE) satellite and discovered that two temporary radiation belts also emerged around our planet following the storms. The belts were created when charged particles from the solar outbursts became trapped by Earth's magnetic field... (MORE - details)
Material from Alpha Centauri is already here
https://www.universetoday.com/170799/mat...eady-here/
EXCERPTS: The Alpha Centauri (AC) star system is our nearest stellar neighbour and consists of three stars: Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, which are in a binary relationship, and Proxima Centauri, a dim red dwarf. The entire AC system is moving toward us, and it presents an excellent opportunity to study how material might move between Solar Systems.
New research to be published in the Planetary Science Journal examines how much material from AC could reach our Solar System and how much might already be here. It’s titled “A Case Study of Interstellar Material Delivery: Alpha Centauri.” The authors are Cole Greg and Paul Wiegert from the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
“Interstellar material has been discovered in our Solar System, yet its origins and details of its transport are unknown,” the authors write. “Here we present Alpha Centauri as a case study of the delivery of interstellar material to our Solar System.” AC likely hosts planets and is moving toward us at a speed of 22 km s?1, or about 79,000 km per hour. In about 28,000 years it will reach its closest point and be about 200,000 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun. According to Greg and Wiegert, material ejected from AC can and will reach us, and some is already here.
AC is considered a mature star system about five billion years old that hosts planets. Mature systems are expected to eject less material, but since AC has three stars and multiple planets, it likely ejects a considerable amount of material.
[...] the research shows that some material can reach us and is already here. Most of it travelled for less than 10 Myr to reach us, but it has to be larger than about 10 microns to survive the journey. It also estimates that about 10 particles from Alpha Centauri become detectable meteors in Earth’s atmosphere currently, with that number increasing by a factor of ten in the next 28,000 years.
This research presents a concrete example of how our Solar System is anything but isolated. If material from star systems can move freely to and from one another, it opens up another window into the planet formation process... (MORE - missing details)