Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, April 24 (Xinhua)-- the NASA-scrapped RHESSI solar storm observation satellite entered the Earth's atmosphere over the Sahara Desert this week and disintegrated, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed.

The satellite, fully known as the Reuven Ramadi High Energy Solar Spectral Imaging probe (RHESSI), was launched in February 2002 to study high-energy particles released by the sun during strong explosions. The satellite retired in 2018 but has been orbiting the earth. The 299kg space junk entered the atmosphere at 00:21 GMT on April 20 and disintegrated over the Sahara Desert. RHESSI fell at about 21.3 degrees north and 26 degrees east. NASA said most of the satellite burned up as it passed through the atmosphere, but some parts may have survived and scattered somewhere in the Sahara Desert.

The satellite is named after Reuven Ramaty, a senior researcher at NASA and a famous solar physicist. The satellite is the first detector capable of imaging spectroscopy of high-energy electrons released by solar flares. These images allow scientists to track where the particles come from and to what energy they are accelerated. "before RHESSI, no one had ever taken gamma-ray or high-energy X-ray images of solar flares," NASA explained. The mission, originally planned for two years, performed well, with RHESSI observing an 11-year solar cycle. After losing contact with the aging satellite, Mission Control shut down the probe on April 12, 2018 and stopped all telemetry transmissions about three months later.

The data collected by the satellite provide scientists with clues about how the sun produces coronal mass ejections (coronal mass ejections). These powerful explosions release energy equivalent to billions of trillion tons of TNT explosives, which can damage satellites and interfere with communications on Earth. RHESSI has recorded more than 100000 solar flares. "over the years, RHESSI has recorded huge changes in the size of solar flares, from tiny nano-flares to super flares tens of thousands of times larger and more explosive." RHESSI also found some phenomena that have nothing to do with flares, such as improved measurements of the shape of the sun.

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