This week, the Sun erupted with a powerful solar flare, and the incident was caught in real-time by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. NASA has shared remarkable footage of the event, which took place on January 20, peaking at 1:01 a.m. ET.
“Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy,” NASA writes. “Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.”
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NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the right side of this image of the Sun – on January 20. The image from SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly 131 Ångström channel (colorized in teal) shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares. Credits: NASA/SDOThe Solar Dynamics Observatory constantly observes this sun, waiting to capture moments like this and seeing how the star changes over time. The image is colorized into this blue shade to better show off the flare event, with the blue representing the extreme ultraviolet light given off by the Sun due to its heat. As well as the whole-Sun image above, NASA also released a close-up clip which shows the flaring region in more detail:
A zoom in on the flaring region. Credits: NASA/SDOThis was classified as a M5.5 solar flare, making it one of the more intense types of flare to have been spotted. According to the Space Weather Prediction Center, there are five levels to measure solar flare intensity, each designated by a letter. The lowest is the A level, followed by B, C, M, and X flares, with each level giving off X-rays ten times more powerful than the level below. As an M flare, this event was on the stronger end of the scale, though not quite as dramatic as the X-1 class flare observed in October last year.
SpaceX Starship reaches orbit for the first time but its historic flight ends early
Starship reaches orbit for the first time and deploys 26 Starlink satellites before an early splashdown.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
Starship is finally going orbital, and SpaceX has picked September 22
Flight 14 is aiming for orbit, Starlink V3 deployment and a very long day in space.
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Want a city on the Moon? Scientists say there’s not enough water
A billion tons still comes up short
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.
