Monday, 20 August 2012

Detecting solar flares

A new method could predict solar flares more than a day before they occur, giving enough time to protect satellites, power grids and astronauts from potentially dangerous radiation. The system works by measuring differences in gamma radiation emitted when atoms in radioactive elements decay or lose energy. The new technique is based on a hypothesis that radioactive decay rates are influenced by solar activity, possibly streams of subatomic particles called solar neutrinos.

No comments:

Post a Comment