NASA comes up with new space weather warning technique to protect astronauts

New Delhi: Warning signs of a type of space weather event can be detected much earlier than with current forecasting techniques - providing critical extra time that could help protect astronauts, NASA scientists say.

The Sun sometimes erupts with bursts of light, solar material, or ultra-fast energised particles - collectively, these events contribute to space weather.

Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere protect us on the ground from most of the harmful effects of space weather, but astronauts in low-Earth orbit - or even, one day, in interplanetary space - are more exposed to space weather, including bursts of fast-moving particles called solar energetic particles, or SEPs.

"Robotic spacecraft are usually radiation-hardened to protect against these kinds of events. But humans are still susceptible," said Chris St Cyr, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in the US.

NASA wants to help improve systems that would provide future astronauts with advance warning of incoming SEPs.

(With Agency inputs)