Stunning images of a raging storm almost as large as Earth have baffled astronomers studying the solar system’s farthest-flung planet, Neptune. Though storms have been observed on the large blue planet before, the location and size of this particular phenomenon has puzzled space boffins since the massive bright clouds were first observed at the end on June. The huge storm, roughly 9,000 km (5,592 miles) in length, is ripping through an area of the planet where no bright clouds have been seen before. For context, if a similar storm happened here on Earth, it would cover three-quarters of our planet…….Read MoreEarth-sized vortex on Neptune takes scientists by storm (PHOTOS)
Stunning images of a raging storm almost as large as Earth have baffled astronomers studying the solar system’s farthest-flung planet, Neptune. Though storms have been observed on the large blue planet before, the location and size of this particular phenomenon has puzzled space boffins since the massive bright clouds were first observed at the end on June. The huge storm, roughly 9,000 km (5,592 miles) in length, is ripping through an area of the planet where no bright clouds have been seen before. For context, if a similar storm happened here on Earth, it would cover three-quarters of our planet…….Read More
The startling finding means that experts may not be able to spot the massive space rock hidden in the annual Taurids meteor shower until it is too late. 
One of the biggest disasters we face would begin about 18 hours after the sun spit out a 10-billion-ton ball of plasma–something it has done before and is sure to do again. When the ball, a charged cloud of particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME), struck the Earth, electrical currents would spike through the power grid. Transformers would be destroyed. Lights would go out. Food would spoil and–since the entire transportation system would also be shut down–go unrestocked……
Between 1958 and 1962, the United States and USSR conducted high-altitude nuclear explosion tests, detonating weapons as high as 250 miles above the surface. A new study has found that these tests triggered changes in Earth’s magnetic environment similar to those resulting from naturally-occurring space weather, when the sun sends high-energy particles streaming toward the magnetosphere. The researchers found that these Cold War-era tests gave rise to temporary radiation belts around Earth and even created artificial auroras that could be seen over the equator, instead of the poles……