Does It Snow In Space? NASA Observes Interesting Particles

NASA researchers thought that a flurry images they saw in space was possibly snow, but it turned out to be something just as interesting - fast-moving energetic particles. The researchers identified the fast-paced, moving particles as a solar radiation storm, which swatted an instrument on board ESA/NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

"Events on the sun can accelerate high-energy particles to very high speeds," said Yari Collado-Vega, a space physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"These solar-accelerated particles can get up to 80 percent of the speed of light," said Collado-Vega in a news release.

These fast moving particles are typical, but the researchers think that this event came from an usual source - a low-solar flare and two slow coronal mass ejections (CMEs). This is where clouds made of solar materials are dispersed from the sun and from strong solar flares. CMEs basically remove everything in their way at high speeds, according to the researchers.  

This event took place on the right side of the sun's disk, an area that has direct magnetic connection to the earth. This equals to "a barrage of fast-moving particles aimed directly at earth" according to the researchers. The radiation, however, cannot pass through Earth's magnetic fields and the atmosphere does not interfere with human life in any way, according to the researchers. 

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