SOLAR WIND

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does solar wind mean? 

• SOLAR WIND (noun)
  The noun SOLAR WIND has 1 sense:

1. a stream of protons moving radially from the sun

  Familiarity information: SOLAR WIND used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOLAR WIND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A stream of protons moving radially from the sun

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("solar wind" is a kind of...):

solar radiation (radiation from the sun)

Meronyms (substance of "solar wind"):

interplanetary gas (a rarefied flow of gas and charged particles (plasma) that stream from the sun and form the solar wind)

Holonyms ("solar wind" is a part of...):

interplanetary medium (interplanetary space including forms of energy and gas and dust)

 Context examples 

This observation program is perfectly timed as NASA’s Juno spacecraft is currently in the solar wind near Jupiter and will enter the orbit of the planet in early July 2016.

(Hubble Captures Vivid Auroras in Jupiter’s Atmosphere, NASA)

This would reduce the weathering from the solar wind, leaving brighter regions over protected areas.

(NASA Research Gives New Insights into How the Moon Got 'Inked', NASA)

The solar wind is responsible for these charging effects.

(Solar Eruptions Could Electrify Martian Moons, NASA)

The solar wind can steal electrons from the neutral gas, resulting in an X-ray glow that looks a lot like the glow from an old supernova.

(Evidence for supernovas near Earth, NASA)

In theory, the interaction between the solar wind's energetic particles and atmospheric molecules could explain the GRaND observations.

(Ceres' Geological Activity, Ice Revealed in New Research, NASA)

The solar wind of particles streaming off the sun helps drive flows and swirls in space as complicated as any terrestrial weather pattern.

(Messenger spots giant space weather effects at Mercury, NASA)

However, unlike our planet, the particles causing Ganymede’s auroras come from the plasma surrounding Jupiter, not the solar wind.

(Fresh Results from NASA’s Galileo Spacecraft 20 Years On, NASA)

Jupiter's magnetosphere — the volume carved out in the solar wind where the planet's magnetic field dominates —extends up to nearly 2 million miles (3 million kilometers).

(Juno Peers Inside a Giant, NASA)

MAVEN then will begin its one Earth-year primary mission, taking measurements of the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars' upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind.

(Mars Mission Spacecraft Enters Orbit around Red Planet, NASA)

On Earth, auroras are created when charged particles from the solar wind enter our planet's magnetosphere, a region where Earth's magnetic field accelerates and sends them toward the poles.

(Powerful Auroras Found at Brown Dwarf, NASA)