Posts by

C. Alex Young

Sun activity archive for October 2022

Bottom line: Sun activity archive for October 2022. A daily record of flaring, big filaments and prominences, and other sorts of activity, on our local star.

C. Alex Young

Raúl Cortés

Armando Caussade

Michael Maimone

October 31, 2022

Limb darkening is an optical effect on the sun

Limb darkening is an effect we can see on the sun where the edges of the sun are darker than the center, due to the amount of photosphere we're looking at.

C. Alex Young

Kelly Kizer Whitt

August 1, 2022

Sun

Why are east and west on the sun reversed?

East and west on the sun are opposite from what you might expect. On the sun, east is to the left and west is to the right. Learn why here.

C. Alex Young

Raúl Cortés

May 3, 2022

A Grand Solar Minimum? Or a normal sun?

A Grand Solar Minimum happens when the peaks of several solar cycles in a row show less than average intensity. Are we in one?

C. Alex Young

May 2, 2022

What does the sun’s X-ray flux tell us?

Solar physicists often speak of the sun's X-ray flux as being high, or low. Solar flares are like waves on the background ocean of the sun's X-ray flux.

C. Alex Young

May 1, 2022

Solar filaments, aka prominences, arc upwards

Solar filaments (aka prominences, when viewed on the limb of the sun) are large, bright arcs of solar material and magnetic fields.

C. Alex Young

March 26, 2022

A storm on the sun, and a great week for auroras

Aurora alert in effect for the next few days: the sun sent out a halo coronal mass ejection on November 2, 2021, due to arrive at Earth on November 4.

Theresa Wiegert

C. Alex Young

November 4, 2021

Sun

Solar storm and aurora starting October 30

A solar storm after an eruption on the sun is carrying plasma toward Earth, which should produce northern and southern lights this weekend.

C. Alex Young

October 30, 2021

Aurora alert! Pair of CMEs to jolt Earth’s magnetic field

Aurora alert! A pair of coronal mass ejections will reach Earth September 1-2, 2021. Though not dangerous to satellites or the grid, they might cause auroras.

C. Alex Young

Deborah Byrd

September 1, 2021

C. Alex Young

C. Alex Young is a solar astrophysicist studying the Sun and space weather. Alex is passionate about sharing science with diverse audiences. This led him to start The Sun Today with his designer wife, Linda. First through Facebook and Twitter then adding an extensive website thesuntoday.org, the two work together to engage the public about the Sun and its role in our solar system. Alex led national engagement efforts for the 2017 total solar eclipse. He is the Associate Director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.