A coronal mass ejection shaping our space weather.
THE LATEST STARBLOG STORY
To soak in a full sense of our Sun, we spoke with NASA heliophysicist Madhulika Guhathakurta.
In Netflix’s recent disaster thriller Leave the World Behind, a series of catastrophic events plague the film’s characters while vacationing in Long Island, New York. A tanker ship rams into the coastline, self-driving cars go amuck, and there’s no internet to watch that final episode of your favorite show.
As calamitous events unfold locally, tragedies abound further afield — all provoked by an unknown instigator. Has artificial intelligence or a rogue country hacked into cyberspace? Or consider the possibility of an extreme solar eruption blasting toward Earth, wreaking havoc around the globe?
Fear not too much about this latter apocalyptic plot, as we are living in a golden age of heliophysics. And while a 1967 solar storm nearly provoked a nuclear war, we are more advanced today in our ability to predict the temperments of our Sun and avoid an end-of-the-world scenario from severe space weather.
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Why Space?
Space exploration advances innovations for solutions on Earth, mobilizes collaborative missions promoting peace, and broadens insights about ourselves, our planet, and all lives in the cosmos.
Why Women?
Women’s participation in the global space industry has hovered at 20% for the past 30 years. Women are at greater risk of leaving their space careers, particularly women of diverse identities.
Why Now?
Today, over half of young people polled would gladly go to space, and soon the first woman and person of color will land on the moon. Our space stories should reflect 21st-century life among the stars.
COSMIC analyzes data from New Mexico’s Very Large Array.
SEARCHING FOR SIGNS OF ET WITH THE MEGACOMPUTER COSMIC
Observing Everything, Everywhere, All At Once
The search for extraterrestrial life is accelerating. An array of new radio telescopes with amped-up computers that process massive data sets means SETI scientists observe more stars more often in search of an artificial extraterrestrial signal.
Chenoa Tremblay is the project scientist for the Commensal Open Source Multimode Interferomic Cluster (COSMIC), an ongoing SETI survey at the Very Large Array (VLA) radio observatory. Tremblay discusses her circuitous career, from accountant to chemist to SETI scientist, and weighs in on the evolution of galaxies, stars, and intelligent life.
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Agnieszczyk wants leaders to embrace a satellite constellation’s view of the world.
MORE TRANSPARENCY WITH EARTH OBSERVATION SATELLITES
Navigating a Brave New Digital Earth World
Agnieszka Lukaszczyk encourages global leaders to embrace a satellite constellation’s view of the world. As Vice President of Government Affairs at the satellite company Planet, she thinks of her work role to be more of an educator than a lobbyist.
“People still ask me — if you work in space, are you looking for aliens? I explain no, but here’s how I can help with your urban planning or agricultural development portfolio. I reassure people that satellites aren’t some weird sci-fi instruments but actually useful tools that address a wide range of issues on Earth.”
When we first spoke to Agnieszka, she was pregnant with plans to give birth in her home country Poland. A borderland away, Russian forces had just invaded Ukraine. We caught up with her a year later to discuss motherhood and how Planet’s Earth Observation satellites support humanitarian operations in Ukraine.