Magnetic arcs of plasma that spiraled above two active regions held their shape fairly well over 18 hours (Jan. 11-12, 2017). The charged plasma is being controlled by the magnetic field lines of the active regions. The field lines become... Continue Reading →
The solar system has one less comet. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watched a comet dive toward the sun. The dirty snowball went in--but it didn't come back out again. The comet, R.I.P., was a member of the Kreutz... Continue Reading →
It's one of the greatest and longest-running mysteries surrounding, quite literally, our sun -- why is its outer atmosphere hotter than its fiery surface? University of Michigan researchers believe they have the answer, and hope to prove it with help... Continue Reading →
The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury has been firing its electric propulsion thrusters since December in the first of 22 ‘thruster burn arcs’ that will steer the spacecraft to its destination. While taking routine images with the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM)’s solar... Continue Reading →
On Mar. 6, 2019, SDO observed a long lunar transit - with a twist. The shadow of the Moon in SDO's images first touched the limb of the Sun at 2200 UTC (5pm EST) on Mar. 6, making its way... Continue Reading →
The SDO spacecraft is in another eclipse season as of Feb. 6, 2019. This begins a several week period when the Earth briefly blocks SDO’s view of the Sun each day. In fact, because SDO orbits above the Mountain Time... Continue Reading →
Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun, in particular infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through Earth's atmosphere, and is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon. When the direct solar radiation is not blocked by clouds, it is experienced as sunshine, a combination of bright light and radiant... Continue Reading →
Billions of years in the future, our dead sun will morph into a giant cosmic jewel, a new study suggests. Like the vast majority of stars in our Milky Way galaxy, the sun will eventually collapse into a white dwarf, an... Continue Reading →
The sun sported four smallish prominences along its edge at about the same time (Dec. 12-14, 2018). They were at the positions of 2 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 7 o'clock, and 10 o'clock. The largest and most active of the prominences... Continue Reading →
