Sun Eruption That May Have Spawned Zombie Satellite Identified

Sun Eruption That May Have Spawned Zombie Satellite Identified

SPACE.com Staff Writer
posted: 13 July 2010


Scientists have identified a massive eruption from the sun in April that reached all the way to Earth and may be responsible for knocking out a satellite, creating a so-called "zombie satellite."

The huge explosion of plasma and magnetic energy, called as a coronal mass ejection (CME), occurred on April 3 and was observed by NASA's sun-watching STEREO spacecraft, according to the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The laboratory released new images of the solar storm last week.

The solar storm appears to have disabled the Intelsat communications satellite Galaxy 15, NRL officials said. Galaxy 15 lost contact with its ground controllers on April 5 and has been drifting around Earth ever since.

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RealAge.comSolar storms are known to put satellites at risk. The charged particles in a storm can short out electrical equipment.

The observations suggest the coronal mass ejection flung material away from the sun at a phenomenal 1,000 kilometers per second. The solar eruption was moving at 2.2 million mph (3.6 million kph) while it was still close to the sun on April 3. It then slowed down to about 700 kilometers per second (1.5 million mph or 2.5 million kph) when it reached Earth on April 5.

There is an odd twist to the Galaxy 15 satellite failure. While the satellite has stopped communicating with its ground control center, its C-band telecommunications payload (which provided broadcast services to customers) is stuck on, earning it the "zombie satellite" nickname.

"Coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, are powerful eruptions of plasma and magnetic energy from the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona," NRL officials wrote in the July 7 statement. "When these sudden outbursts are directed toward Earth, they can have both breathtakingly beautiful and potentially damaging effects." [Amazing new sun photos.]

The study of the April 3 coronal mass ejection event was performed using NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), a set of twin spacecraft on opposite sides of Earth that continuously watch the sun in what produces a stereo view, due to the wide separate of the probes in space.

The unique lateral views provided by STEREO were ideal for studying the kinematics and morphology of the developing event, said Russell Howard, the STEREO mission's principal investigator at the Naval Research Laboratory.

Three-dimensional reconstruction of the evolving cloud of electrified gas showed its form to be a crescent-shaped "flux rope" with a shock wave driven in front.

Prior awareness that the coronal mass ejection was headed straight for Earth came from the NRL-developed coronagraph aboard the SOHO solar observatory, which is located at a spot between the Earth and sun. That Large Angle Coronograph-Spectrograph (LASCO) instrument on SOHO observed a "halo" around the sun formed by the expanding and approaching solar eruption, NRL officials said.

Meanwhile, the now-aimless electronic signal from Galaxy 15 has forced other communications satellites to conduct evasive maneuvers from time to time to avoid signal interference. But the chances of the Galaxy 15 spacecraft hitting another satellite are so remote, they are non-existent, Intelsat officials have said. This month, Galaxy 15 will be flying near two other Intelsat satellites (Galaxy 13 and Galaxy 14).

Gallery: Solar Storms
Amazing New Sun Photos
Frustrating Zombie Satellite Still Adrift In Spacewww.space.com...

Nice post!
Thanks for the info and insight, I will dig in to check it out.
Zombie Satellite - sounds like a new sci-fi flick.
Peace

I just posted this on another thread and thought i would share it here.
Heres a one for you all if i may? I was going to start a thread asking for info but thought i may as well put it here.
Last night i had a wierd dream about this device i had that stopped pests getting in the garden? Yeah wierd, but the thing is it was based on a certain frequency to repel them. Which got me thinking.
Would we today have the capability to repel ET`s away from Earth using the likes of HAARP or similar massive multi billion $ projects?
Thats a genuine question too because if that was possible then who would be set to gain fron keeping the public in the dark?

Im asking also because i think if im right then we have ourselves a forcefield as such? Would you agree? Prison planet?

Am i right to assume that the frequencies from various locations may be effected or possibly stopped during a large flare? Would this lead to an increase of ufo sightings globally? (im no talking disclosure either)
Im genuinely interested in your thoughts here?

reply to post by jazz10

HAARP is not set up to do anything like that. It's output is far too small to do anything but it was set up to do--RESEARCH; this includes all claims of HAARP causing earthquakes, hurricanes, even things as mundane as undulatus clouds.

Second, if something is advanced enough to travel across both space and time, what would our puny little civilization be able to do to stop them? Absolutely nothing. Even overcoming things like CME's. They would have to be able to overcome obstacles like these and more, bigger, and more dangerous type of things.
And if we were able to repel ET's, wouldn't we be able to shield our own satellites? No one would even have to say how, more than "advanced shielding technology". No one would question it because very few people are aware of any level of technology involved in satellite technology.
But, really. Your original query is somewhere off in la-la land, at least for now.

Stationary satellites aka Clark Belt Satellites are not the ones that matter so much. These commerical satellites have standby satellites in orbit to replace them. Chances of the Clark Belt sats colliding are virtually insignificant.


The Polar Orbiting satellites are the ones that have a much greater chance of colliding with each other, or with space junk.

In about the last year a Russian zombie polar orbiter satellite collided with another polar orbiter. Seems like the second one was an Iridium sat.