Evolving Energy of a Solar Flare’s Explosive First Minutes Captured With New Radio Telescope
Toward the end of 2017, a massive new region of magnetic field erupted on the Sun’s surface next to an existing sunspot. The powerful collision…
Sun
Parker Solar Probe’s First Discoveries: Strange Phenomena in Space Weather, Solar Wind
NASA mission named for pioneering University of Chicago scientist produces landmark research. Last summer, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe split the predawn skies in a blaze…
Outbursts of Highly Energetic Particles Detected on Closest-Ever Flyby of the Sun
New data from the first two orbits by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Outbursts of energetic particles that hurtle out from the sun and can disrupt…
Magnetic Explosions Observed on Sun – Unlike Anything Seen Before [Video]
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has observed a magnetic explosion the likes of which have never been seen before. In the scorching upper reaches of the…
New Evidence of Origins of Solar Wind From Closest-Ever Approach to the Sun
The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, which has flown closer to the Sun than any mission before, has found new evidence of the origins of the…
5 Astonishing New Discoveries From NASA’s Parker Solar Probe [Video]
In August 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched to space, soon becoming the closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun. With cutting-edge scientific instruments to measure the…
Hear the Eerie Song That Earth “Sings” When It Is Hit by a Solar Storm
Earth’s magnetic song recorded for the first time during a solar storm Data from ESA’s Cluster mission has provided a recording of the eerie ‘song’…
Groundbreaking New Images Peel Away Layers of a Stellar Mystery
An international team of scientists, including three researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has shed new light on one of the central mysteries…
Solar Spicules Launched by Magnetic Reconnection on Sun’s Surface
New observations of solar spicules, ubiquitous jet-like plasma features that punctuate the Sun’s atmosphere, suggest they are generated by the energy released as the two…
Mercury Transit: Important Details for Observing Stunning Phenomenon
Today, November 11, 2019, we’re in for a rare treat, as the innermost planet, Mercury, passes directly in front of the Sun for a few…
Watch Mercury Glide Across the Sun in Rare Transit
A rare transit of Mercury will take place on Monday, November 11, 2019, when the smallest planet in our Solar System will pass directly between…
The Real Facts on NASA’s Flaming Jack-o’-Lantern Image
Recently, this image from NASA showing the sun looking quite a bit like a flaming Jack-o’-Lantern has been all over mainstream news outlets. Although the…
Scientists Thought It Was Physically Impossible: Magnetic Instability Discovered in Sun’s Rotating Plasma
An overlooked piece of the solar dynamo puzzle: Researchers demonstrate particular form of magnetic instability. A previously unobserved mechanism is at work in the Sun’s…
The Sun Won’t Become a Black Hole – Here’s Why
Will the Sun become a black hole? No, it’s too small for that! The Sun would need to be about 20 times more massive to…
Solar Phenomena Including Sunspots Explained by Plasma Flow Near Sun’s Surface
For 400 years people have tracked sunspots, the dark patches that appear for weeks at a time on the sun’s surface. They have observed but…
Moon Contains Clues to the Ancient Mysteries of the Sun
The Sun is why we’re here. It’s also why Martians or Venusians are not. When the Sun was just a baby four billion years ago,…
Solar Coronal Rain on Our Sun Links Two Mysteries
For five months in mid 2017, Emily Mason did the same thing every day. Arriving to her office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in…
Scientists Discover Solar Tadpole-Like Jets Coming Out Of The Sun
Scientists have discovered tadpole-shaped jets coming out of regions with intense magnetic fields on the Sun. Unlike those living on Earth, these “tadpoles” — formally…