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To understand the solar cycle, notice how the sun sleeps
Confirmed
In Short: NASA uses space-based observations to understand Earth as a system, examining cycles and processes that interact and influence each other.
The Sun is currently in Cycle 25, which began in 2019, and scientists are observing its patterns to better predict future activity.
Since the 1800s, it has been known that the Sun's active and passive periods follow an 11-year pattern known as the solar cycle.
However, even after centuries of observation, predicting the exact timing and intensity of solar maximum remains challenging.
Solar activity can significantly impact modern technological infrastructure, making accurate predictions crucial.
Sandra Chapman has observed that solar maxima have a sharp cutoff point, with the number of sunspots at that point correlating with the strength of the next solar maximum.
The William Herschel Telescope is also studying comets and other solar system objects, with new evidence suggesting that 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object, formed in an extremely cold environment far from any star.
By measuring the ratio of ionized nitrogen to ionized carbon monoxide, researchers determined that 3I/ATLAS contains more nitrogen gas than typical solar system comets.
In California, community organizations played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, translating clinical vaccine information into plain language residents could understand.
University of Victoria researchers are studying Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) to better understand planetary formation, as these objects are some of the best-preserved in the Solar System.
By mapping how nerves are connected, researchers can begin to understand how nervous systems perceive the world, process information, and produce behavior.
Each new dataset is helping to gain a better understanding of disorders such as Alzheimer’s, depression, and schizophrenia, and to envision therapies that could repair damaged neural pathways.
What this adds
The study of solar cycles and interstellar objects provides new insights into the formation and evolution of our solar system and beyond.
What's confirmed
- The Sun is currently in Cycle 25, which began in 2019, and scientists are observing its patterns to better predict future activity.
- Since the 1800s, it has been known that the Sun's active and passive periods follow an 11-year pattern known as the solar cycle.
- However, even after centuries of observation, predicting the exact timing and intensity of solar maximum remains challenging.
- Solar activity can significantly impact modern technological infrastructure, making accurate predictions crucial.
- Sandra Chapman has observed that solar maxima have a sharp cutoff point, with the number of sunspots at that point correlating with the strength of the next solar maximum.
- The William Herschel Telescope is also studying comets and other solar system objects, with new evidence suggesting that 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object, formed in an extremely cold environment far from any star.
- By measuring the ratio of ionized nitrogen to ionized carbon monoxide, researchers determined that 3I/ATLAS contains more nitrogen gas than typical solar system comets.
- In California, community organizations played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic, translating clinical vaccine information into plain language residents could understand.
- University of Victoria researchers are studying Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) to better understand planetary formation, as these objects are some of the best-preserved in the Solar System.
- By mapping how nerves are connected, researchers can begin to understand how nervous systems perceive the world, process information, and produce behavior.
- Each new dataset is helping to gain a better understanding of disorders such as Alzheimer’s, depression, and schizophrenia, and to envision therapies that could repair damaged neural pathways.
What's still developing
- The telescope is set to transform our understanding of the cosmos —from the furthest reaches and most mysterious forces to the planets and stars that make up our own galaxy and even objects in our solar system.
- She says Roman has two main goals: to better understand dark matter and dark energy and how they impacted the evolution of the universe, and to look for undiscovered planets outside of our own solar system.
- Choi says it will hopefully allow scientists to observe the outer edges of the universe and understand how exoplanets have formed and evolved.
- Her work involves handling communications between engineers working on the telescope and international scientists who may have different measurements for understanding dark matter, dark energy and exoplanets.
- The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things.
- Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
- SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) makes the first global survey of Earth's surface water, observe the fine details of the ocean's surface topography, and measure how water bodies change… In order to study the Earth as a whole system and understand how it is changing, NASA develops and supports a large number of Earth observing missions.
- NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future.
- Most of all, we look at Earth as a system, examining the cycles and processes—the water cycle, the carbon cycle, ocean circulation, the movement of heat—that interact and influence each other in a complex, dynamic dance across seasons and decades.
- If you want to understand how interconnected our planet is—how patterns and events in one place can affect life half a world away—study El Niño.
- “This object gives us a rare chance to study material that formed somewhere completely different to our own Solar System,” said Northumbria University astronomer Léa Ferellec and colleagues.
- “Powerful, large-format integral field units with high sensitivity in the blue optical spectrum — like WEAVE-LIFU on the William Herschel Telescope — are opening new frontiers for the study of comets and other solar system objects,” said Dr. Rubén Sánchez-Janssen, director of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes who was not involved in this study.