Atmosphere

A powerful solar flare just erupted from the surface of the Sun – and NASA captured stunning footage of it.The X-class flare, the strongest produced by our star, was recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory as it burst from a sunspot on the lower left limb of the Sun at 9:25 am EDT (13:25 GMT) on Tuesday (May 3).  Sunspots are areas on the Sun's surface where powerful magnetic fields, created by the flow of electrical charges, knot into kinks before suddenly snapping. The resulting release of energy launches bursts…

The Moon may look like a big dry ball, but there’s more water up there than you might expect. In a new study, scientists have shown that at least some of it could have been showered onto the lunar surface from the Earth’s atmosphere.Over the past decade or so, water has been detected on the Moon by many spacecraft. Most of it appears to be in the form of ice that’s particularly concentrated around the poles, while other regions of the lunar surface may host water-rich minerals. Tracking the vital stuff could inform the…

Reports suggest that a part of a Falcon 9 rocket safely broke down over Mexico after falling through the Earth's atmosphere. The incident occurred five years after the SpaceX rocket had sent a satellite to space. In March 2017, this spacecraft had helped launch the EchoStar 23 mission. A video of the disintegrating rocket was tweeted by Frontera Espacial (@FronteraSpacial) on February 6. The re-entry was confirmed by the Aerospace Corporation as well.Though several posts suggested that it was a meteorite that fell through…

An asteroid, around 3-metre wide, hit the Earth's atmosphere on March 11, just two hours before it was discovered by a Hungarian astronomer. The object, now designated 2022 EB5, impacted the planet north of Iceland. The 2022 EB5 was only the fifth asteroid to be discovered before it struck the planet. The first four were designated 2014 AA, 2018 LA, 2008 TC3 and 2019 MO.Krisztian Sarneczky, the Hungarian astronomer at the Piszkesteto Mountain Station, which is a part of Konkoly Observatory near Budapest, has discovered…