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Cosmic Ray Update: New Results From the Moon

posted by Fnord666 on Saturday July 27 2019, @08:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the cosmic-encounters dept.

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Cosmic Ray Update: New Results from the Moon

Note to astronauts: 2019 is not a good year to fly into deep space. In fact, it’s shaping up to be one of the worst of the Space Age.

The reason is, the solar cycle. One of the deepest Solar Minima of the past century is underway now. As the sun’s magnetic field weakens, cosmic rays from deep space are flooding into the solar system, posing potential health risks to astronauts.

NASA is monitoring the situation with a radiation sensor in lunar orbit. The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) has been circling the Moon on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft since 2009. Researchers have just published a paper in the journal Space Weather describing CRaTER’s latest findings.

“The overall decrease in solar activity in this period has led to an increased flux of energetic particles, to levels that are approaching those observed during the previous solar minimum in 2009/2010, which was the deepest minimum of the Space Age,” write the authors, led by Cary Zeitlin of NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center. “The data have implications for human exploration of deep space.”

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @09:04PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @09:04PM (#872087)

    The results were surprising. During the 9-month journey to Mars, radiation from solar flares (including the strongest flare of the previous solar cycle) accounted for only about 5% of Curiosity’s total dose. The remaining 95% came from cosmic rays.

    This seems about right, currently only about 5% of what the sun does is considered by scientists. The role of the magentic field protecting the solar system from cosmic rays has gone largely (but not totally) neglected. This is why we are seeing climate change folks.

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  • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday July 28 2019, @06:26AM (1 child)

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Sunday July 28 2019, @06:26AM (#872216)

    This is why we are seeing climate change folks.

    so the massive amounts of CO2 and other heat trapping gasses Humanity has been releasing into the atmosphere for the last 200 some years has nothing to do with it at all?

    --
    "Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 28 2019, @11:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 28 2019, @11:17AM (#872259)

      Everything humans do has some effect on the climate, but the sun is still far more influential.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @09:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @09:40PM (#873274)

    You mean that climate change that changes every 11 years with the solar magnetic field changes?

    Dumbass.