Venus Spacecraft Punched, Blinded by Solar Radiation
Space weather in our solar system has been rather unsettled of late, and some of our tenacious robotic interplanetary explorers have been feeling the impact of the sun’s temper tantrums. The European Space Agency’s Venus Express orbiter suffered a particularly nasty solar sucker-punch, temporarily blinding one of its navigational systems.
The solar radiation hit Venus’ orbit on March 7 (Tuesday) after the sun had belched out a series of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). This radiation uptick knocked-out Venus Express’ startracker cameras (including the backup camera), causing them to lose sight of stars the spacecraft uses to orient itself.
137 Notes/ Hide
- okorogariist reblogged this from discoverynews
- thestarsbeckon reblogged this from itsfullofstars
- ylsuomynona liked this
- officialandromeda reblogged this from marbleousmego
- michaelgotitright-blog reblogged this from itsfullofstars
- jefreecolpetzer-jefree6 reblogged this from itsfullofstars
- jefreecolpetzer-jefree6 liked this
- ohlapiniadelaninia-blog liked this
- lightfasthigh liked this
- strictlyastronomy reblogged this from discoverynews
- enrichscience-blog reblogged this from discoverynews
- bonedust liked this
- tooltoybox liked this
- gnatchan-blog reblogged this from discoverynews
- onepercentof1 liked this
- ibrunooi-blog reblogged this from discoverynews
- ibrunooi-blog liked this
- void-inactive reblogged this from itsfullofstars
- stardustandwands liked this
- traipsingtheergosphere reblogged this from discoverynews
- giiiieee liked this
- lusciouslipslj-blog reblogged this from discoverynews
- motionpixel liked this
- fukkiy reblogged this from discoverynews
- t-1016 liked this
- randomoldbastich reblogged this from itsfullofstars
- livinginthepresentfurture reblogged this from discoverynews
- thewindchil-blog reblogged this from discoverynews
- frostfortytwo liked this
- cbatty liked this
- condoreav reblogged this from itsfullofstars
- derekauslino reblogged this from itsfullofstars
- s0mething-new--blog liked this
- lunapics liked this
- sputnk reblogged this from voyagrtwo
- discoverynews posted this
- Show more notes