Sometimes the Sun's pull damages the core and parts of it break up. The magnetic field lines carried by CME's are unusual in structure, often appearing like stretched out bed springs, called magnetic clouds. Magnetic clouds and effects of CME's are sometimes seen by spacecraft far from the Sun. D Return to Main Index E Return to Main Index Earth Earth is the only planet whose name did not derive from Greek or Roman mythology, it comes from Old English and Germanic descent. For centuries, Earth was thought to be the center of the universe, but that was disproved by Copernicus in the sixteenth century.
Planet Earth is surrounded by satellites , only one of which is natural.
Compared to the diameter of a typical galaxy, galaxies are rather close to each other in space, especially when contrasted to the relatively large distance between stars, when compared to the diameter of a typical star. Our galaxy, like most, is very large. This spacecraft is named after the Earth's magnetotail where it spent most of its time early in its mission. It was built by the Japanese Space Agency, called ISAS, but has many scientists and engineers from around the world involved. It was launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral for Japan on July 24, 1992.