On This Day in Space! Feb. 27, 1942: J.S. Hey discovers radio emissions from the sun

On Feb. 27, 1942, a British physicist named James Stanley Hey accidentally found out that the sun emits radio waves.

Hey was working for the Army Operational Research Group in the middle of World War II. His job was to find ways to stop the Germans from jamming British radars.

Hey received reports that anti-aircraft radars were experiencing severe noise jamming. In other words, foreign radio-frequency signals were interfering with the radars' ability to operate. When he investigated the signals, he realized that they weren't coming from Nazis — they were coming from the sun! More specifically, they were coming from an active sunspot.

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4 Comments Comment from the forums

The Exoplanets Channel 13 December 2019 17:13

Very interesting
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Arc Light 17 July 2020 14:59

Just so you know, the X-15 took off from Edwards AFB under the wing of a B-52 & was airdropped over Delamar Dry Lake, Nevada. The flight to the altitude record wasn't planned, but the rocket engine burned for two seconds longer than expected. The test flight was scheduled to peak at 280,000', but actually reached 314, 750' due to the extra rocket burn time.
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Fourth Root 18 July 2020 00:34

Misleading wording. Bob White did not set the world altitude record on July 17th, 1962. Four Astronauts and two cosmonauts had flown higher prior to his flight. One could say it was the highest manned flight of a winged craft. But that's not the wording that was used.
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DrRaviSharma 20 July 2020 13:16

On this date in 1969, I was part of NASA Apollo Team

Contributed to Experiments in orbit and on Surface of Moon (ALSEP) etc.also trained astronauts

Studied containation on and ouside Spacecraft.

The Moon gave me employment to work for 5 Years on exciting Human Space flight Programs Skylab, Planning of Space Station and Space Shuttle

See My picture taken with Buzz Aldrin in 2009
https://www.space.com/india-moon-landing-not-a-failure.html
I received Apollo Achievement Award from NASA dated July 20, 1969.

Thanks Hanneke Weitering for today's Historic post

Ravi
Dr. Ravi Sharma
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