The origin’s of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission can be traced back to a paper published 60 years ago by astrophysicist Eugene Parker, describing high speed matter emanating from the center of our solar system. Today the spacecraft carrying his name lifted off and is now en route to the Sun.
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According to a newly published paper, powerful solar storms were responsible for communication outages in 2017, as professionals and volunteers alike worked to provide emergency aid in the wake of the devastation caused by hurricanes Irma, Katia and Jose.
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The Sun was far more active in its early years, but we only really know this from studying other similar stars. Now, researchers have found the fingerprints of this active young Sun in tiny, bright blue crystals preserved in meteorites from a collection at Chicago’s Field Museum.
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Next month, NASA is set to launch a pioneering new mission. The Solar Parker Probe will will become the spacecraft to most closely orbit our Sun, all things going to plan. And a pretty important part of that plan is the advanced heat shield now installed by NASA engineers.
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When the solar winds emanating from our Sun meet interstellar space, they collide with material from beyond and limit the amount of harmful particles that come back the other way. NASA has ticked off a new mission to probe this protective bubble known as the heliosphere.
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While there already are materials that change color in response to UV exposure, those color-changes involve reorganization of the material's molecular structure, so it can only be used a few times. A new material known as SensoGlow, however, can be used to detect and measure UVs over and over.
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Our Sun is too small to explode in a supernova, but new findings suggest that our nearby star is in for a dramatic demise, creating a vast ring of gas and dust called a planetary nebula. Though that was always a leading theory, there’s some small consolation for those that thought differently…
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An international team of astronomers has released survey data detailing the chemical fingerprints of over 340,000 stars. The observations could be used to identify stellar bodies that formed alongside our Sun billions of years ago.
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Managing our exposure to the sun can be a delicate balancing act. QSun is a clever tracker that removes the guesswork by using artificial intelligence to keep tabs on sun exposure, even giving you a buzz when it's time to head for the shade.
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New research suggests the Sun might be headed towards a “grand minimum” of a centuries-long cycle, during which the Earth would receive much less ultraviolet radiation. If so, it may even help slow – but not stop – the progression of the climate’s general warming trend.
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