Sun

Scientists have made a breakthrough in the way we study this plasma, managing to trap an ultracold form of it in a magnetic "bottle" for the first time, an achievement that could act as a springboard for research into nuclear fusion energy.

Astronomers have released a stunningly detailed image captured by the by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, revealing the structure of a massive sunspot as it temporarily darkened the Sun’s surface on January 28, 2020.

Scientists have condensed decades of footage taken of our Sun’s atmosphere into a 47-minute video showcasing solar activity on a grand scale. The video was released to mark the 25th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric observatory.

Borexino, a huge underground particle detector in Italy, has picked up a never-before-seen type of neutrino coming from the Sun. These neutrinos confirm a 90-year-old hypothesis and complete our picture of the fusion cycle of the Sun and other stars.

NASA and NOAA have confirmed that the Sun has entered a new solar cycle, with activity beginning to ramp back up from its minimum in December 2019. This next cycle is forecast to be rather quiet, continuing a long-term trend of reduced activity.

NASA has announced the selection of five Medium Class Explorer concept mission proposals that could one day revolutionize our understanding of the space environment, and see pictures taken of the Sun's polar regions.

Harvard scientists have suggested that the Sun had a long-lost twin. An ancient binary solar system helps explain the strange structure of the Oort cloud, and possibly the hypothetical Planet Nine. Best of all, the team outlines how we could check.

An ESA/NASA spacecraft has captured the closest pictures of the Sun ever taken. The images reveal that our star is covered in relatively tiny flare-like explosions that scientists have dubbed "campfires."

A team of material scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles is reporting a major advance in the area of reflective coatings for buildings, producing a new kind of super white paint that reflects almost all incoming radiation from Sun.

NASA has released a time-lapse video of our Sun that condenses 10 full years of solar observations into a 61 minute movie. The shots were taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which has been keeping vigil over our parent star for a decade.

NASA has released video showing what sunsets might look like on a number of different planets. The simulations were created by a NASA planetary scientist using a computer modeling tool being developed for a possible future mission to Uranus.

Back in February, the European Space Agency and NASA launched the Solar Orbiter, a spacecraft developed in collaboration to study the Sun in entirely new ways, and the probe has now made its first close approach to our star.