Artist's rendition of a CME swirling outward through the Solar System.
Click on image for full size
NASA
Space Weather throughout the Solar System
The Sun is huge. It has an effect on things even if they are far from the Sun. The "bubble" where the Sun has an effect on things is called the heliosphere. It goes even past Pluto! The place where the "bubble" ends is called the heliopause.
That means that the solar wind that comes from the Sun affects all of the planets, their moons and even comets within our Solar System.
Some day astronauts will go
far from Earth, and their safety will depend on our knowledge of how the Sun affects things in the heliosphere.
You might also be interested in:
A magnetosphere has many parts, such as the bow shock, magnetosheath, magnetotail, plasmasheet, lobes, plasmasphere, radiation belts and many electric currents. Particles in the magnetosphere cause aurora
...moreDid you know that some of the planets and moons can be magnetic? Earth is! The Galileo spacecraft found out that a moon of Jupiter, Ganymede, is magnetic too!
...moreThe Sun is huge. It has an effect on things even if they are far from the Sun. The "bubble" where the Sun has an effect on things is called the heliosphere. It goes even past Pluto! The place
...moreDid you know that the Earth has a magnetic field? It's almost as if a giant bar magnet ran through our planet. The magnetic field of the Earth is like a huge bubble around our planet. This bubble keeps
...morePipelines for transporting oil, natural gas, and water are often made of conducting materials like steel. Very long pipelines (thousands of kilometers/miles) are used to transport oil and gas at high latitudes,
...moreThe invention of the seamless, electrically-welded pipe in the 1920's which was capable of carrying material under high pressures, enabled the building of profitable pipelines over a thousand miles long.
...moreCertain animal species on Earth (such as the homing pigeon) are able to detect Earth's magnetic field and use it for navigational purposes. Homing pigeons have been known to reach home by flying over 1,6
...more