Sun | EarthSky

Bright red blobby seahorse shape on dark red background.

Awaiting the next historic solar storm

Posted by Kelly Kizer Whitt in Human World | Sun | 1 month ago

Researchers uncovering eyewitness accounts of powerful solar storms of the past say we should expect at least one super-storm from the sun per century.

Check out these new Sun Science stamps!

Posted by Eleanor Imster in Human World | Sun | 4 months ago

The US Postal Service announced that they’ll be releasing a series of stamps highlighting images of the sun captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

SDO spies its 1st lunar transit of 2021

Posted by Deborah Byrd in Sun | Today's Image | 4 months ago

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has been continuously observing the sun since its launch in 2010. From its vantage point above Earth, it sees the moon pass in front of the sun 2 to 5 times a year.

The sun in 2020

Posted by EarthSky in Space | Sun | 4 months ago

See a whole year of sun images, an image a day for 2020, taken by ESA’s Proba-2 satellite.

Is a solar flare the same thing as a CME?

Posted by EarthSky in Space | Sun | 4 months ago

Solar Cycle 25 is here, and that means – in the years ahead – more solar flares and more coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. People sometimes use the words interchangeably, but they’re not the same thing. Here’s the difference.

What are sun pillars or light pillars?

Posted by Deborah Byrd in Earth | Sun | 4 months ago

Sun pillars, or light pillars, are shafts of light extending from the sun or other bright light sources under the right atmospheric conditions. They’re caused by ice crystals drifting in Earth’s air.

New sunspot cycle could be among strongest on record

Posted by EarthSky Voices in Space | Sun | 4 months ago

A study of oppositely charged magnetic field bands, moving in the sun’s northern and southern hemispheres, suggests the coming sunspot cycle – Cycle 25 – will be a particularly strong one. This result contradicts an earlier expert forecast, suggesting a weak Cycle 25.

Watch: 25 years of the sun

Posted by Eleanor Imster in Space | Sun | 5 months ago

This video, merging more than 2 decades of footage from SOHO cameras, captures thousands of sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections breaking out from the sun.

Monster sunspot AR2786 swings into better view

Posted by Eleanor Imster and Deborah Byrd in Space | Sun | Today's Image | 5 months ago

The sun is becoming active again as it enters Solar Cycle 25. This week, scientists’ predictions of sunspots were proven via photos from astronomers around the world. Giant sunspot AR2786 can be viewed with proper filters and may create strong flares that reach Earth.

The sun is becoming active again

Posted by Deborah Byrd in Space | Sun | Today's Image | 6 months ago

EarthSky community members have captured the giant sunspot region – AR 2781 – currently making its way across the sun’s visible surface.

A close-up image of the sun with a large flare on one portion.

A new method for predicting large solar flares

Posted by Graham Jones in Human World | Space | Sun | 7 months ago

Solar storms pose risks for society, but more accurate space weather forecasts appear to be coming soon. A team of researchers in Japan has developed a physics-based method for predicting large solar flares, including powerful and potentially dangerous X-flares.

Two hemispheres, one on left with yellow patches and arc-shaped splashes, one on right very plain.

Solar Cycle 25 is here

Posted by Eleanor Imster in Space | Sun | 8 months ago

The sun has passed from one of its 11-year activity cycles into another. Scientists predict the new cycle – Solar Cycle 25 – will be about as calm as the previous one.

Four-paned view of space, with a bright light from the sun on one side, and a tiny dot (Mercury).

Solar Orbiter’s 1st views of the sun

Posted by Deborah Byrd in Space | Sun | 10 months ago

Solar Orbiter’s new views are the closest images of the sun taken so far.

10 years of the sun in 1 hour

Posted by EarthSky in Space | Sun | 10 months ago

A new timelapse from NASA’s SDO Observatory condenses an entire solar cycle into 1 hour.

A spacecraft, with what looks like a large camera "eye," with the sun in the background.

ESA’s Solar Orbiter made its 1st close approach to the sun on June 15

Posted by Deborah Byrd in Human World | Space | Sun | 11 months ago

Solar Orbiter swept as close as 50 million miles (77 million km) to our sun’s surface. Now scientists are at work testing the spacecraft’s 10 science instruments, including the 6 telescopes on-board. New images, to be released in mid-July, will be the closest of the sun ever captured.

Liftoff! Solar Orbiter launches successfully

Posted by Deborah Byrd in Space | Sun | Today's Image | 1 year ago

ESA’s sun-exploring Solar Orbiter will be the first spacecraft ever to fly over the sun’s poles. It’ll study the origin of the solar wind, which has the potential to affect earthly technologies.

Artist's concept of spacecraft near sun.

NASA to broadcast Sunday’s Solar Orbiter launch

Posted by Deborah Byrd in Human World | Space | Sun | 1 year ago

Solar Orbiter – aka SolO – will take the first direct images of the sun’s poles. Following Sunday’s launch, the spacecraft will take a loopy path through the inner solar system, borrowing thrust from the powerful gravitational fields of Earth and Venus.

Newest solar telescope releases its 1st images

Posted by Eleanor Imster in Space | Sun | 1 year ago

The clarity of these images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii is thanks to the telescope’s 4-meter mirror, the world’s largest for a solar telescope. “It’s the biggest jump in our ability to study the sun since Galileo’s time,” a scientist said.

Are solar storms dangerous to us?

Posted by Deborah Byrd in Space | Sun | 1 year ago

Activity on the sun affects Earth’s magnetic field. It can cause geomagnetic storms, the same events that create the beautiful aurorae, or northern and southern lights. Are these storms dangerous?

Scientists see a new kind of explosion on the sun