Operations teams have confirmed NASA’s mission to “touch” the Sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024. Breaking its previous record by flying just 3.8 million miles above the surface of the Sun, NASA’s... Continue Reading →
The Sun, our life-sustaining star, is not just a serene orb of light but an immense, dynamic sphere of energy with a profoundly complex magnetic field. Among its many phenomena, solar flares stand out as some of the most dramatic... Continue Reading →
In visible light, the Sun appears blank and featureless. But through a solar telescope in a different wavelength, it is revealed to be much, much more. In extreme ultraviolet light, the Sun resembles a rumpled ball of yarn. It teems... Continue Reading →
Large coronal mass ejection (CME) was recorded by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on 30 August 2022. The CME struck ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft as it performed a flyby of Venus. Credit: ESA/NASA SOHO
On August 25 Sun and Moon could both be seen in planet Earth's daytime skies. And so could the International Space Station. The ISS crossed the disk of the waning crescent Moon as seen from Shunyi district, Beijing, China at about... Continue Reading →
We all wish that we could sometimes see into the future. Now, thanks to the very latest data from ESA’s star mapping Gaia mission, astronomers can do just that for the Sun. By accurately identifying stars of similar mass and... Continue Reading →
Why, sometimes, does part of the Sun's atmosphere leap into space? The reason lies in changing magnetic fields that thread through the Sun's surface. Regions of strong surface magnetism, known as active regions, are usually marked by dark sunspots. Active regions can channel charged... Continue Reading →
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is speeding in toward the Sun after a swing past Venus on Oct. 16, successfully using the planet’s gravity to shape its path for its next closest approach to our star. At just after 5:30 a.m.... Continue Reading →
The prominences of the Sun are solar filaments of matter projected above its surface and characterizing the activity of the Sun. This activity seems to vary by up to another within a cycle.In absolute terms, solar activity is regulated by a cycle... Continue Reading →
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