Kind: captions
Language: en
this is our sun you already know it's an
essential part of life on Earth to State
the obvious it keeps us warm it makes
our plants grow we even use it as an
energy
source but in this Nova lab you'll meet
another side of the sun its
unpredictable mysterious side you see
our sun can throw off massive storms of
matter and energy and it can send them
directly toward Earth
for most of human history these solar
storms haven't been much of a problem
but now because of our dependence on
modern technology we're vulnerable to
extreme space weather like never
before if a huge solar storm struck
Earth today a combination of radiation
charged particles and intense magnetic
fields would wreak havoc it could harm
astronauts fry satellites and cause
surges that severely damage our power
grid knocking out power and
communication for weeks months even
years that means no cell phones no email
no lights basically a
disaster fortunately the past 10 years
have brought a revolution in solar
research scientists can now see the sun
in more detail than ever before and
while they can't prevent solar storms
from happening they are getting much
better at predicting them by in critical
time to take measures that would would
protect the grid and other
Technologies but why not see for
yourself in this lab you'll learn all
about the sun and the weather it throws
off and you'll get to do your own
research using the same NASA tools that
scientists use to predict when the next
big solar storm might hit so come into
the lab and take a look at the Dark Side
of the Sun you never know what you'll
find
[Music]