Sun Series: What is Space Weather?

NASA's Curious Universe

Katie Konans

Science

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Earth, the Sun can seem steady and predictable. But when you look at our star close up, there’s a lot going on. Go behind the scenes with NASA’s Moon to Mars Space Weather Analysis Office, a team monitoring space weather—eruptions of radiation and plasma from the Sun that can wreak havoc on spacecraft and pose dangers to astronauts. We’ll also revisit the most powerful geomagnetic storm on record, an 1859 event that produced northern lights visible in the tropics and made electrical systems go haywire. This is episode four of the Sun and Eclipse series from NASA’s Curious Universe, an official NASA podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, space nerds! If you are in the path of the solar eclipse, I hope you had clear skies and an incredible experience.
0:08.0	We'll share dispatches from the path of totality in a bonus episode soon.
0:13.0	In the meantime, the sun isn't going anywhere, and neither are we.
0:18.0	We live in the atmosphere of a dynamic and sometimes turbulent star.
0:23.2	Solar activity can have serious effects on Earth
0:25.8	and to NASA astronauts and spacecraft.
0:29.9	This is NASA's curious universe.
0:32.5	Our universe is a wild and wonderful place.
0:36.0	I'm your host, Patty Boyd,
0:38.0	and in this podcast, NASA is your tour guide.
0:52.5	In the fourth episode,
0:53.6	we're visiting a place not many people get to go.
0:59.0	NASA's daily briefing of the Sun's activity.
1:03.4	Check, check, check.
1:04.4	All right.
1:05.8	Well, it's a Tuesday morning.
1:08.1	I just pulled up to the Goddard Space Flight Center here in Maryland.
1:13.7	It's a beautiful day.
1:16.4	This is Jacob Pinter, my co-host for Curious Universe.
1:20.2	He is going to help me tell the story.
1:22.5	It's finally warm.
1:25.0	It's really sunny.
	...

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