Space weather can cause both beautiful auroras and infrastructure challenges – 5 essential reads on protecting life and technology

Most days, you can look up and see the Sun shining above. Even if it’s hidden behind clouds, you know it’s there, lighting up the sky. But while the Sun’s light might be relatively constant, its surface is surprisingly active. If you hopped on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe for a closeup view of the Sun, you might see spurts of charged gas called solar flares coming off its surface, or dramatic explosions called coronal mass ejections. These events travel outward from the Sun through space, and sometimes they interact with Earth’s magnetic field, causing space weather.

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Jülich Backs European Satellite for Space Photosynthesis

The European Space Agency’s FLEX mission marks the beginning of a new era of plant research from space. The satellite, which was specifically developed to observe photosynthesis, will track how plants react to drought, heat, and other environmental stresses. The insights could help to develop climate-resilient agriculture, better protect natural ecosystems, and increase food security in the long term. Forschungszentrum Jülich operates the German FLEX project office, contributes its scientific expertise to the mission, and supports researchers in using the freely available satellite data.

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What happens when quantum mechanics and relativity meet?

Almost a hundred years ago, physicists theorized out what free fall should do to a quantum wave. If the solution they came up with is wrong, quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of gravity flatly contradict each other. But testing it has been impossible because nobody has managed to build an interferometer that could perform the necessary measurement.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Space weather can cause both beautiful auroras and infrastructure challenges – 5 essential reads on protecting life and technology

Most days, you can look up and see the Sun shining above. Even if it’s hidden behind clouds, you know it’s there, lighting up the sky. But while the Sun’s light might be relatively constant, its surface is surprisingly active. If you hopped on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe for a closeup view of the Sun, you might see spurts of charged gas called solar flares coming off its surface, or dramatic explosions called coronal mass ejections. These events travel outward from the Sun through space, and sometimes they interact with Earth’s magnetic field, causing space weather.

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Or a Tesla.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Space weather can cause both beautiful auroras and infrastructure challenges – 5 essential reads on protecting life and technology

Most days, you can look up and see the Sun shining above. Even if it’s hidden behind clouds, you know it’s there, lighting up the sky. But while the Sun’s light might be relatively constant, its surface is surprisingly active. If you hopped on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe for a closeup view of the Sun, you might see spurts of charged gas called solar flares coming off its surface, or dramatic explosions called coronal mass ejections. These events travel outward from the Sun through space, and sometimes they interact with Earth’s magnetic field, causing space weather.

More…

Friendly tip: don’t look up at the sun. You can tell it is there without looking at it…

furious said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Space weather can cause both beautiful auroras and infrastructure challenges – 5 essential reads on protecting life and technology

Most days, you can look up and see the Sun shining above. Even if it’s hidden behind clouds, you know it’s there, lighting up the sky. But while the Sun’s light might be relatively constant, its surface is surprisingly active. If you hopped on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe for a closeup view of the Sun, you might see spurts of charged gas called solar flares coming off its surface, or dramatic explosions called coronal mass ejections. These events travel outward from the Sun through space, and sometimes they interact with Earth’s magnetic field, causing space weather.

More…

Friendly tip: don’t look up at the sun. You can tell it is there without looking at it…

Yes.

furious said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Space weather can cause both beautiful auroras and infrastructure challenges – 5 essential reads on protecting life and technology

Most days, you can look up and see the Sun shining above. Even if it’s hidden behind clouds, you know it’s there, lighting up the sky. But while the Sun’s light might be relatively constant, its surface is surprisingly active. If you hopped on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe for a closeup view of the Sun, you might see spurts of charged gas called solar flares coming off its surface, or dramatic explosions called coronal mass ejections. These events travel outward from the Sun through space, and sometimes they interact with Earth’s magnetic field, causing space weather.

More…

Friendly tip: don’t look up at the sun. You can tell it is there without looking at it…

but that is where the fun is!

Tau.Neutrino said:

furious said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Space weather can cause both beautiful auroras and infrastructure challenges – 5 essential reads on protecting life and technology

Most days, you can look up and see the Sun shining above. Even if it’s hidden behind clouds, you know it’s there, lighting up the sky. But while the Sun’s light might be relatively constant, its surface is surprisingly active. If you hopped on NASA’s Parker Solar Probe for a closeup view of the Sun, you might see spurts of charged gas called solar flares coming off its surface, or dramatic explosions called coronal mass ejections. These events travel outward from the Sun through space, and sometimes they interact with Earth’s magnetic field, causing space weather.

More…

Friendly tip: don’t look up at the sun. You can tell it is there without looking at it…

Yes.

Looking at the sun can cause eye damage.

I think its fairly well known.

But just in case.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Jülich Backs European Satellite for Space Photosynthesis

The European Space Agency’s FLEX mission marks the beginning of a new era of plant research from space. The satellite, which was specifically developed to observe photosynthesis, will track how plants react to drought, heat, and other environmental stresses. The insights could help to develop climate-resilient agriculture, better protect natural ecosystems, and increase food security in the long term. Forschungszentrum Jülich operates the German FLEX project office, contributes its scientific expertise to the mission, and supports researchers in using the freely available satellite data.

More…

What kinds of analyse using AI could be achieved with so much free data?

thanks

SCIENCE said:

thanks

No worries.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Jülich Backs European Satellite for Space Photosynthesis

The European Space Agency’s FLEX mission marks the beginning of a new era of plant research from space. The satellite, which was specifically developed to observe photosynthesis, will track how plants react to drought, heat, and other environmental stresses. The insights could help to develop climate-resilient agriculture, better protect natural ecosystems, and increase food security in the long term. Forschungszentrum Jülich operates the German FLEX project office, contributes its scientific expertise to the mission, and supports researchers in using the freely available satellite data.

More…

What kinds of analyse using AI could be achieved with so much free data?

AI could find and catalogue all plants with high enough definition to see shapes and color ranges.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Jülich Backs European Satellite for Space Photosynthesis

The European Space Agency’s FLEX mission marks the beginning of a new era of plant research from space. The satellite, which was specifically developed to observe photosynthesis, will track how plants react to drought, heat, and other environmental stresses. The insights could help to develop climate-resilient agriculture, better protect natural ecosystems, and increase food security in the long term. Forschungszentrum Jülich operates the German FLEX project office, contributes its scientific expertise to the mission, and supports researchers in using the freely available satellite data.

More…

What kinds of analyse using AI could be achieved with so much free data?

AI could find and catalogue all plants with high enough definition to see shapes and color ranges.

From there you could count all the different species of plants, count each species, keep track of declining numbers and map where they all are.

Welsh actor Matthew Rhys won two Emmys today, one for Widow’s Bay and one for The Beast In Me. Which is certainly unusual.

Physicists zoom into the birth of cosmic rainstorms with new CERN study

Every second, particles zip through your body at nearly the speed of light. They rain down from a storm high in the sky, where cosmic rays, a powerful type of interstellar matter, are constantly striking atoms in Earth’s atmosphere. The impacts break them apart into a shower of particles that rain to the ground.

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LOL

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/16/uk-mathematician-debunks-myth-parthenon-optical-illusions

we saw something recently that was either along the debunk lines, or presented the myths unquestioningly but in a way that made us think it really didn’t make physical / cognitive / mathematical sense

SCIENCE said:

LOL

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/16/uk-mathematician-debunks-myth-parthenon-optical-illusions

we saw something recently that was either along the debunk lines, or presented the myths unquestioningly but in a way that made us think it really didn’t make physical / cognitive / mathematical sense

unless it was this, which we saw recently in geologic time but not really that recently relative to our biochemical lifetime

SCIENCE said:

SCIENCE said:

LOL

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/16/uk-mathematician-debunks-myth-parthenon-optical-illusions

we saw something recently that was either along the debunk lines, or presented the myths unquestioningly but in a way that made us think it really didn’t make physical / cognitive / mathematical sense

unless it was this http://www.greece-is.com/the-optical-illusions-that-make-the-parthenon-perfect/ , which we saw recently in geologic time but not really that recently relative to our biochemical lifetime

sorry link included now fixed

SCIENCE said:

SCIENCE said:

SCIENCE said:

LOL

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/16/uk-mathematician-debunks-myth-parthenon-optical-illusions

we saw something recently that was either along the debunk lines, or presented the myths unquestioningly but in a way that made us think it really didn’t make physical / cognitive / mathematical sense

unless it was this http://www.greece-is.com/the-optical-illusions-that-make-the-parthenon-perfect/ , which we saw recently in geologic time but not really that recently relative to our biochemical lifetime

sorry link included now fixed

Yes, it all seemed a bit overstated and perhaps a little far-fetched. Especially as you can clearly see, for example, that the columns are a bit plump, and it doesn’t look to be compensating for any geometric inadequacy if they weren’t. Just making them a bit more satisfyingly substantial.

We may soon be able to read long-lost ancient scrolls damaged by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius