NASA is embarking a new ambitious mission to unravel the Sun’s interior mechanisms that may help predict solar storms that cause chaos on Earth. The US space agency hopes the mission — scheduled for February 9 from Space Launch Complex-41, Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida — will help understand the
causes of extreme solar activities such as Sun spots and solar winds and flares.
According to NASA, after its launch, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will spend five years in orbit trying to discover how such solar phenomena are created.
Understanding of those activities, the scientists hope they will be able to produce reliable forecasts of ‘space weather’ and provide advance warnings of any threat, The Sunday Times reported.
Scientists have long said that solar disturbances on the Sun can trigger dangerous x-rays, charged particles and magnetic fields that can disrupt power supplies, communication signals and aircraft navigation systems on Earth.
“It is NASA’s first weather mission and it aims to characterise everything on the sun that can impact on the Earth and near Earth,” said project scientist Barbara Thompson.