#aristarchus — Public Fediverse posts

“Here comes the sun”*…

Further, in a fashion, to last Wednesday’s post… We’ve looked before (e.g., here) at the potential havoc that solar storms could wreak on our electified lives. Now, as Paul Voosen reports, scientists are speculating on a defense, suggesting that gases released from satellites could slash the threat of severe “space weather”…

When violent eruptions from the Sun slam into Earth’s magnetic field, they do more than paint aurorae across the night sky. They can scramble the electronics of satellites and induce powerful ground currents that knock out electrical grids. It’s been estimated that a one-in-a-100-year solar storm like the 1859 Carrington Event could cause more than $3 trillion of damage to the power grid alone. [See here.]

Yet for decades, society’s only defenses have been better space weather forecasts and more durable technology on the ground and in space. Now, a small group of space physicists says humanity should intervene and weaken solar storms in real time. In a study published [recently] in Space Weather, the researchers describe a provocative proposal called “StormWall”: a fleet of satellites that would release hundreds of tons of gases into space just before a solar storm strikes Earth. Computer simulations suggest the artificial cloud could cut the intensity of a major solar storm by half or more. “It’s as if you could install an airbag in the magnetosphere,” says Daniel Welling, a co-author and space physicist at the University of Michigan.

Call it “helioengineering”—a deliberate intervention in the near-Earth space environment. But unlike controversial geoengineering proposals to mitigate global warming, which would inject long-lived Sun-blocking particles into the atmosphere, StormWall’s protective gases would dissipate within hours, says Brian Walsh, the study’s lead author and a space physicist at Boston University. “It’s waiting for us to do some temporary modification.”

The proposal would require more extensive simulations and testing. But it is “highly innovative and appears to be quite feasible in the near term,” says Allison Jaynes, a space physicist at the University of Iowa. It’s a “laudable idea,” adds Gurudas Ganguli, a space physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)…

[Voosen explains the technology proposed and considers the challenges in its implementation…]

… Of course, like an airbag, StormWall would have to be replaced if deployed. But just as NASA and other space agencies are studying how to protect the planet from asteroids [and here], Walsh says there’s a good argument for fortifying an electronics-dependent society against massive solar eruptions. “If we lose all our power grids and can’t use the internet for 6 years, it would be traumatic.”

“Radical proposal would block solar storms with orbital ‘airbag’” from @science.org.

* George Harrison

###

As we apply sunscreen, we might send bright birthday greetings to Godfried Wendelen; he was born on this date in 1580. And astronomer (and Catholic priest) known as “the Ptolemy of his time.” Despite the tenets of his church, Wendelen was an audacious proponent of the Copernican theory that the planets orbit around the sun. He made more accurate measurements of the distance to the sun than those previously made by Aristachus (2,000 years earlier) from the geometrical relationships at the exact time of a half-moon.

Wendelen is considered by many as a precursor of Kepler and Newton, and was in fact cited by Newton in his Principia. The crater Vendelinus on the Moon is named after him

source

“Here comes the sun”*…

Further, in a fashion, to last Wednesday’s post… We’ve looked before (e.g., here) at the potential havoc that solar storms could wreak on our electified lives. Now, as Paul Voosen reports, scientists are speculating on a defense, suggesting that gases released from satellites could slash the threat of severe “space weather”…

When violent eruptions from the Sun slam into Earth’s magnetic field, they do more than paint aurorae across the night sky. They can scramble the electronics of satellites and induce powerful ground currents that knock out electrical grids. It’s been estimated that a one-in-a-100-year solar storm like the 1859 Carrington Event could cause more than $3 trillion of damage to the power grid alone. [See here.]

Yet for decades, society’s only defenses have been better space weather forecasts and more durable technology on the ground and in space. Now, a small group of space physicists says humanity should intervene and weaken solar storms in real time. In a study published [recently] in Space Weather, the researchers describe a provocative proposal called “StormWall”: a fleet of satellites that would release hundreds of tons of gases into space just before a solar storm strikes Earth. Computer simulations suggest the artificial cloud could cut the intensity of a major solar storm by half or more. “It’s as if you could install an airbag in the magnetosphere,” says Daniel Welling, a co-author and space physicist at the University of Michigan.

Call it “helioengineering”—a deliberate intervention in the near-Earth space environment. But unlike controversial geoengineering proposals to mitigate global warming, which would inject long-lived Sun-blocking particles into the atmosphere, StormWall’s protective gases would dissipate within hours, says Brian Walsh, the study’s lead author and a space physicist at Boston University. “It’s waiting for us to do some temporary modification.”

The proposal would require more extensive simulations and testing. But it is “highly innovative and appears to be quite feasible in the near term,” says Allison Jaynes, a space physicist at the University of Iowa. It’s a “laudable idea,” adds Gurudas Ganguli, a space physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)…

[Voosen explains the technology proposed and considers the challenges in its implementation…]

… Of course, like an airbag, StormWall would have to be replaced if deployed. But just as NASA and other space agencies are studying how to protect the planet from asteroids [and here], Walsh says there’s a good argument for fortifying an electronics-dependent society against massive solar eruptions. “If we lose all our power grids and can’t use the internet for 6 years, it would be traumatic.”

“Radical proposal would block solar storms with orbital ‘airbag’” from @science.org.

* George Harrison

###

As we apply sunscreen, we might send bright birthday greetings to Godfried Wendelen; he was born on this date in 1580. And astronomer (and Catholic priest) known as “the Ptolemy of his time.” Despite the tenets of his church, Wendelen was an audacious proponent of the Copernican theory that the planets orbit around the sun. He made more accurate measurements of the distance to the sun than those previously made by Aristachus (2,000 years earlier) from the geometrical relationships at the exact time of a half-moon.

Wendelen is considered by many as a precursor of Kepler and Newton, and was in fact cited by Newton in his Principia. The crater Vendelinus on the Moon is named after him

source

#Aristarchus crater is 40 kilometers in diameter and 2700 meters deep (23.73°N, 312.51°E) https://lroc.im-ldi.com/images/1022

More pictures : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aristarchus_(crater)

#Moon #LRO #LunarReconnaissanceOrbiter

#Aristarchus crater is 40 kilometers in diameter and 2700 meters deep (23.73°N, 312.51°E) https://lroc.im-ldi.com/images/1022

More pictures : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aristarchus_(crater)

#Moon #LRO #LunarReconnaissanceOrbiter

#Aristarchus's #heliocentric model, proposed 18 centuries before #Copernicus, is a powerful reminder of how suppressed ideas resurface in the #history of science.

🌍 https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/09/aristarchus-of-samos-the-greek-sage-who-discovered-that-the-planets-revolved-around-the-sun/

#Aristarchus's #heliocentric model, proposed 18 centuries before #Copernicus, is a powerful reminder of how suppressed ideas resurface in the #history of science.

🌍 https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2025/09/aristarchus-of-samos-the-greek-sage-who-discovered-that-the-planets-revolved-around-the-sun/

The idea that the earth goes around the sun has an ancient precedent: the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus of Samos.

A look at what he thought, why he thought it, and what other people thought of it.

#classics #astronomy #aristarchus
https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2024/03/aristarchus.html

The idea that the earth goes around the sun has an ancient precedent: the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus of Samos.

A look at what he thought, why he thought it, and what other people thought of it.

#classics #astronomy #aristarchus
https://kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2024/03/aristarchus.html

@setiinstitute
The #Aristarchus region is interesting for a number of features, but the Crater itself is in fact very bright.

Here's a view of the region taken with an #ETX90 telescope.

@setiinstitute
The #Aristarchus region is interesting for a number of features, but the Crater itself is in fact very bright.

Here's a view of the region taken with an #ETX90 telescope.

Some more #Moon photos from 1st May '23 #Oxfordshire, UK #WilliamOptics 70mm refractor 5x #Powermate + #ZWOASI120MC camera. Best 25% of a 2,000 frame video #LunarAstrophotography #LunarCraters #JHerschel #Aristarchus #Schiller

Some more #Moon photos from 1st May '23 #Oxfordshire, UK #WilliamOptics 70mm refractor 5x #Powermate + #ZWOASI120MC camera. Best 25% of a 2,000 frame video #LunarAstrophotography #LunarCraters #JHerschel #Aristarchus #Schiller

Some #Moon photos I took on 1st May '23 #Oxfordshire, UK #WilliamOptics 70mm refractor #Celestron 3x Barlow + #ZWOASI120MC camera. Best 25% of a 2,000 frame video #LunarAstrophotography #SinusIridum #Aristarchus #Gassendi #MareHumorum

Some #Moon photos I took on 1st May '23 #Oxfordshire, UK #WilliamOptics 70mm refractor #Celestron 3x Barlow + #ZWOASI120MC camera. Best 25% of a 2,000 frame video #LunarAstrophotography #SinusIridum #Aristarchus #Gassendi #MareHumorum

Here you can see #Aristarchus and the #Schrötertal al little bit closer

#Mondspaziergang #mond #moon

At the right there is #Kepler and big #Copernicus. On the left side, near the terminator, lays bright, shiny #Aristarchus. Today you can see Schröter valley near #Aristarchus much better than yesterday.

#Mondspaziergang #mond #moon

#Moon at dusk in the deep blue sky:

#Keppler in the center, #Aristarchus in the upper left (the brightest part of the moon) and the Schröter valley behind.

#monflausch #mond #mondspaziergang

@JohnBarentine
I love the Aristarchus region. For the longest time I thought there were two rills trailing off from the Crater. I finally realized that one was actually shadow cast by a difference in terrain height.

Here's a shot of #Aristarchus taken with my #ETX90 some years ago.

@JohnBarentine
I love the Aristarchus region. For the longest time I thought there were two rills trailing off from the Crater. I finally realized that one was actually shadow cast by a difference in terrain height.

Here's a shot of #Aristarchus taken with my #ETX90 some years ago.

Thought i’d post to try out the system as a newbie. Lunar imaging from a couple of nights back. Finally using an electronic focuser just adds that extra finesse! #aristarchus #monsgruithuisen #sinusiridum