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Lunar astronauts at risk from solar storms

The proton storm that erupted from a giant sunspot last Thursday might have sickened or killed lunar astronauts had they been caught outside their habitats.

Fortunately, there are no astronauts on the moon right now. And the two-man crew of the International Space Station is well-sheltered from solar storms by the Earth's magnetic field. They were also able to take shelter in the well-shielded Russian service module Zvezda.

For more from NASA on how vulnerable our astronauts will be to nasty "space weather" when they return to the moon, click here.

Posted by on January 27, 2005 6:14 PM |
                    

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About the blogger
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1993, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page.
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