Something big is about to happen on the Sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the Sun’s vast magnetic field is about to flip. Something big is happening on the Sun. The Sun’s global magnetic field is about to flip, a sign that Solar Max has arrived. Image Credit: Science@NASA “It looks like we’re [continue reading]
A team of astronomers led by Jose Dias do Nascimento (Department of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte [DFTE, UFRN], Brazil) has found the farthest known solar twin in the Milky Way Galaxy, CoRoT Sol 1, which has about the same mass and chemical composition as the Sun. Figure [continue reading]
Using data from an aging NASA spacecraft, researchers have found signs of an energy source in the solar wind that has caught the attention of fusion researchers. NASA will be able to test the theory later this decade when it sends a new probe into the Sun for a closer look. The solar wind [continue reading]
ESA’s Herschel space observatory has detected a cool layer in the atmosphere of Alpha Centauri A, the first time this has been seen in a star beyond our own Sun. The finding is not only important for understanding the Sun’s activity, but could also help in the quest to discover protoplanetary systems around other [continue reading]
Scientists at Northumbria University have begun to unlock the mystery of why the outer edge of the Sun is much hotter than its surface for the first time. Magnetic loop structures in the corona of the Sun. A team led by Northumbria’s Dr Richard Morton, and including researchers from the University of Sheffield and [continue reading]
The Sun’s visible surface, or photosphere, is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As you move outward from it, you pass through a tenuous layer of hot, ionized gas or plasma called the corona. The corona is familiar to anyone who has seen a total solar eclipse, since it glimmers ghostly white around the hidden Sun. This [continue reading]