Solar Wind: A Truly Endless Energy Source?

in news •  last year 

Catching Solar Wind: A Truly Endless Energy Source?

"The Sun releases a constant stream of particles and magnetic fields called the solar wind. This solar wind slams worlds across the solar system with particles and radiation – which can stream all the way to planetary surfaces unless thwarted by an atmosphere, magnetic field, or both."
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2288/the-solar-wind-across-our-solar-system/

What is Solar Wind?

"The solar wind, a highly tenuous plasma streaming from the Sun into interplanetary space at supersonic speed, is roughly composed of 95% hydrogen and 5% helium by number. All other, heavy elements contribute less than 0.1% by number and thus are truly test particles Nevertheless, these particles provide valuable information not present in the main components."
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19960021278

"the number they found was 0.127 particles per cubic centimeter, or about 120 hydrogen atoms in a space the size of a quart of milk."
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/new-evidence-our-neighborhood-in-space-is-stuffed-with-hydrogen

NASA ScienceCasts: Effects of the Solar Wind

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