solar storms

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Solar storms affect Earth occasionally, if indirectly. The flares and tsunami-like waves that sweep over the sun's surface can disable satellites and down power grids. Now it seems they can have a more concrete impact on objects that cross their path. For the first time ever, NASA scientists captured images of a comet colliding with a coronal mass ejection and losing its plasma tail in the process. In the comet's case, the same ejections that disrupt radio communications triggered magnetic reconnection, shoving together opposing magnetic fields surrounding the comet and causing the tail to rip off during the subsequent burst of energy.

The image above isn't much to look out, but researchers spliced together a series of pictures taken by NASA's STEREO satellite into a terrific movie of the collision, check it out here.—Abby Seiff

Prepare to be astounded: the image on the right is in . . . three dimensions

Seven months after its launch, NASA's STEREO satellite has sent back 3-D images of the sun. The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (guess STRO wasn't a cool enough acronym) charts the flow of matter and energy between Earth and the sun, and maps out things like solar storms and coronal mass ejections--actually useful for us, since these storms and CMEs will be used to better predict the next blackout-inducing maelstrom.So what's NASA been up to while its probe undertakes a two-year photo shoot? Well, it's been typing up the instructions on
how to make your own 3-D glasses. (Hint: it's exactly what you'd imagine.) —Abby SeiffRelated Links:Solar stormMake your own specsThe sun in 3-D