The Sun is not exactly placid, though it appears pretty peaceful in the quick glances we can steal with our naked eyes. In reality though, the Sun is a dynamic, chaotic body, spraying out solar wind and radiation and erupting in great sheets of plasma. Living in a technological society next to all that is a challenge.
Mostly the Sun just warms the Earth. But sometimes its eruptions lead to solar storms that strike the Earth. And in our electrified and globally communicative world, those storms can cause a lot of damage. Potentially billions of euros worth of damage in Europe alone, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). There are things we can do to protect our electrical grid, communications systems, and other infrastructure from the geomagnetic storms caused by the Sun. But, we need to know when one’s coming.
A video simulation of Earth’s magnetic field interacting with the (solar) interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). A powerful enough solar storm can compress the Earth’s magnetosphere and allow the material and magnetism from the Sun to damage power-lines and other infrastructure. Credit: By Dr. Nikolai Tsyganenko, USRA/NASA/GSFC – Public Domain.
If we want to predict solar storms with any accuracy, we have to observe their source: the Sun. While we can see the Sun from Earth, the Earth’s magnetic field, which actually works to protect us from these storms, is a hindrance to monitoring the Sun. The atmosphere blocks out the Sun’s x-rays, extreme UV, and gamma rays, which also makes it harder to observe the Sun in detail.
It’s not that ground observations of the Sun can’t tell us about the Sun’s behaviour, and impending solar storms, it’s just that they can’t do it alone. Satellites inside Earth’s magnetosphere but outside the atmosphere can also help. But they take in situ measurements, they don’t make forecasts.
The ESA is planning a mission that will give us more advance warning of dangerous storms. To be more effective, it has to be in space, away from the Earth’s magnetosphere. The mission is called Lagrange, and right now the ESA is considering a pair of spacecraft. One would sit at Lagrangian Point 1, and the other would sit at Lagrangian Point 5.
The Earth-Sun Lagrangian points. (Not to scale.) One of the proposed spacecraft would sit at L1, in a head-on position to the Sun. The other would sit at L5 and gain an important side view. (The spacecraft shown at L2 is NASA’s WMAP.) Image Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team
Lagrange points are specific locations in space where the gravitational force from the Earth and the Sun balance each other, and a spacecraft can stay in that position for a long time with minimal fuel usage. There are already multiple spacecraft at L1 and L2, with more coming. (The James Webb Space Telescope will be deployed at L2.)
The Sun sometimes erupts and emits vast globs of material with magnetic field lines from coronal mass ejections. Most of those globs don’t come anywhere near Earth; but occasionally, one strikes us. And that causes a geomagnetic storm here, as the Sun’s outburst temporarily overwhelms the Earth’s magnetosphere.
But these storms don’t come out of nowhere. They start out with observable conditions on the Sun. The Sun has an 11 year cycle, and the part of that cycle with the most solar activity—and storm potential—is called the solar maximum. During the solar maximum, most storms come from coronal mass ejections (CMEs). At other times in the 11 year cycle, storms are also spawned by co-rotating interaction regions (CIRs).
Sun with a huge coronal mass ejection. Image credit: NASA
But whatever the cause, they all come from the Sun, and predicting them more accurately is to everyone’s benefit.
The pair of spacecraft would work together to monitor the Sun. L1 is in the solar wind, in an upstream position. L1 measurements can tell us about space weather that’s heading for Earth. The L5 position gives us a kind of side view of coronal mass ejections, and that allows for better measurements of a CME’s speed and direction. Together, the information would mean better forecasts.
“One of the best ways to observe rapidly changing solar activity is to position a dedicated spacecraft slightly away from our direct line to the Sun, so that it can observe the ‘side’ of our star before it rotates into view,” said Juha-Pekka Luntama, responsible for space weather at ESA’s mission control centre, Darmstadt, Germany.
The L1 spacecraft would measure the actual material of the storm heading for Earth, and could sample its speed, density, temperature, and pressure. It can also measure the strength and the direction of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF), which is the portion of the Sun’s magnetic field pushed into space by the Sun’s solar wind. The L1 position also allows the spacecraft to watch the solar disc and corona, and to measure energetic particles from the Sun.
A contour plot of the effective potential due to gravity and the centrifugal force of a two-body system in a rotating frame of reference. The arrows indicate the gradients of the potential around the five Lagrange points—downhill toward them (red) or away from them (blue). Counterintuitively, the L4 and L5 points are the high points of the potential. At the points themselves these forces are balanced. Image Credit: By Lagrange_points.jpg: created by NASAderivative work: Xander89 (talk) – Lagrange_points.jpg, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7547312
The L5 position is 60 degrees behind Earth as it orbits the Sun. The L5 spacecraft would look at things from the side, and would see the side of the Sun that was about to rotate to face Earth. That spacecraft would also be able to watch as plasma clouds propagate and are emitted toward Earth.
“L5 is an excellent spot for a future ESA space weather mission because it gives advance views of what’s happening at the Sun,” said Juha-Pekka in a press release.
“The spacecraft would provide crucial data that will help us spot Earth-arriving ejections, improve our forecasts of the arrival time at Earth and provide advance knowledge of active regions on the Sun as they rotate into view.”
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For this mission, the two spacecraft would not be identical. To fulfill their scientific roles, they’d each need a different suite of instruments. Among those instruments are magnetographs, coronagraphs, heliospheric imagers, magnetometers, spectrometers, plasma analyzers, and others.
The Lagrange mission would become part of a network of observing facilities, both in space and here on Earth, dedicated to forecasting space storms. Together, they make up the ESA’s Space Weather (SWE) network.
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In a press release, the ESA states that a single extreme space weather event could cause up to $15 billion euros ($16.2 billion US). With advance warning, power grid operators would be able to prepare for the storm and reduce the damage, and ensure that electricity to critical facilities like hospitals was only minimally interrupted. Satellite operators would likewise benefit.
The mission is in the design concept stage right now. Experts in space weather and instrument design from industrial and scientific consortiums in Europe are working on it. The ESA says they will select a mission design within about 18 months.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
