Because the variety of satellites in house grows, and as we depend on them for rising numbers of significant duties on Earth, the necessity to higher predict stormy house climate is turning into increasingly pressing.
Scientists have lengthy identified that photo voltaic exercise can change the density of the higher environment. But it surely’s extremely troublesome to exactly predict the kinds of density modifications {that a} given quantity of photo voltaic exercise would produce.
Now, consultants are engaged on a mannequin of the higher environment to assist scientists to enhance their fashions of how photo voltaic exercise impacts the surroundings in low Earth orbit. In the event that they succeed, they’ll have the ability to maintain satellites protected even amid turbulent house climate, decreasing the chance of doubtless catastrophic orbital collisions. Learn the complete story.
—Tereza Pultarova
The way to reopen a nuclear energy plant
A shut-down nuclear energy plant in Michigan may get a second life because of a $1.52 billion mortgage from the US Division of Power. If profitable, it is going to be the primary time a shuttered nuclear energy plant reopens within the US.
Palisades Energy Plant shut down on Might 20, 2022, after 50 years of producing low-carbon electrical energy. However the plant’s new proprietor thinks financial circumstances have improved previously few years and plans to reopen by the top of subsequent yr.
A profitable restart can be a serious milestone for the US nuclear fleet, and assist inch the nation nearer to local weather objectives. However reopening isn’t so simple as flipping on a light-weight change. Right here’s what it takes to reopen a nuclear energy plant.