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Last Post 5/20/2015 6:52 AM by  Kris Sigsbee
solar storms
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Anonymous





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5/18/2015 10:27 AM
    erica d whats the farthest planet in the solar system that solar storms effect?, or can it effect them all?
    Tags: solar storms, Heliosphere, Heliopause, Voyager

    Emilia Kilpua



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    Posts:88
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    5/19/2015 7:56 AM
    Coronal mass ejections, huge magnetized plasma clouds, which drive largest space weather storms at the Earth get weaker while propagating away from the Sun. However, they survive at very long distances and may drive space weather disturbances at the other planets as well. For example, auroras have been reported also in the magnetospheres of distant gas planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/640801main_uranus-aurora-.jpg

    Christina Cohen



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    Posts:148
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    5/19/2015 6:45 PM

    Hi Erica,

    In fact solar storms can travel way beyond any planet in our solar system. A large coronal mass ejection that left the Sun in March 2012 was observed by the Voyager spacecraft 13 months later when it was about 12 billion miles away from the Sun (about 4 times farther than Pluto).

    -Christina


    Kris Sigsbee



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    Posts:415
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    5/20/2015 6:52 AM

    Hi Erica,

    The Voyager I observations of solar storms near the heliopause (the edge of the region of space affected by the Sun) were made by a plasma wave instrument built by some of my co-workers at the University of Iowa. Even though the Voyager I spacecraft was launched more than 30 years ago, the University of Iowa plasma wave instrument is still going strong and returning interesting data about the heliosphere (the very large region of space affected by the Sun and the solar wind). Scientists have found evidence that Voyager recently left the heliosphere and entered interstellar space. You can read more about the University of Iowa instrument on Voyager here:

    http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/voyager/

    Kris

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