In episode 115 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk about the sun and solar activity cycles.
We see the sun every day as it rises and sets… it’s one of the few constants in life. But it is a very dynamic body, which regularly exhibits small tantrums. Coincidentally, we are at the peak of the eleven year activity cycle and there is a lot going on!
Dr. Alex Young, the Associate Director for Science of the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, joins us to talk about the recent solar storms that caused our aurora and some communications outages, the science of the Parker solar probe, and much more.
Don’t take friendly Mr. Sun for granted: experience this fascinating episode with us!
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Space news of the week
Model Falcon 9!
Finally, did you know that you can launch your own SpaceX rocket? Model rocket maker Estes’ beautiful scale model of a Falcon 9 rocket that you can now pick up. The launchable model is a detailed recreation of the Falcon 9 and retails for $149.99. You can save 10% by using the code IN-COLLECTSPACE at checkout, courtesy of our partners collectSPACE.com.
About this week in space
This Week in Space covers the new space age. Every Friday we dive deep into a fascinating topic. What will happen with the new race to the moon and other planets? When will SpaceX really send people to Mars?
Join Space.com’s Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik as they answer these questions and more every week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe to your favorite podcatcher today.
Rod Pyle is an author, journalist, television producer and editor-in-chief of Advertisement Astra magazine. He has written 18 books on the history, exploration and development of space, including Space 2.0, Innovation the NASA way, Interplanetary robots, Blueprint for a Battlestar, Amazing stories from the space age, First on the moonAnd Destination Mars
In a previous life, Rod produced numerous documentaries and short films for The History Channel, Discovery Communications and Disney. He also worked on visual effects Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the Battlestar Galactica reboot, as well as several sci-fi TV pilots. His most recent TV credit was with the NatGeo documentary about Tom Wolfe’s iconic book The good stuff.
Tariq Malik is responsible for Space.com’s editorial vision and has been editor-in-chief of Space.com since 2019. He has been covering space news and science for 18 years. He joined the Space.com team in 2001, first as an intern and soon after as a full-time spaceflight reporter covering human spaceflight, exploration, astronomy and the night sky. In 2009, he became editor-in-chief of Space.com. As an on-air talent, he presented space stories on CNN, Fox News, NPR and others.
Tariq is an Eagle Scout (yes, he earned the Space Exploration merit badge), a Space Camp veteran (four times as a kid, once as an adult) and took the ultimate “vomit comet” ride while reporting on gravity burn without gravity. Before joining Space.com, he was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times, covering urban and education beats. He holds degrees in journalism from the University of Southern California and New York University.