JAXA Venus Climate Orbiter AKATSUK Makes Solar Weather Discovery

Artist’s rendition of akatsuki’s findings. Photo: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) / The University of Tokyo

[Via Satellite 12-26-2014] Scientists have continued to make use of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) Venus Climate Orbiter Mission AKATSUK after it missed its intended orbital injection around the planet in 2010. Researchers from the University of Tokyo and from the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) using an instrument aboard the spacecraft have discovered that solar wind at roughly 20 times the radius of the sun is drastically accelerated at a distance of five times the radius of the sun. Those involved in the study said the acceleration of solar wind at approximately 14 million miles from the Sun’s center is related to heating caused by an energy source of waves transmitting through solar wind. The scientists published a research thesis in the June 20 and Dec. 10, 2014, issues of “The Astrophysical Journal.”