The Sun & Solar Physics

News & Articles

The Sun appears orange with several dark sunspots of various sizes scattered across its midsection.

Track the Solar Cycle with Sunspots

5 min read

Participate in sunspot-counting activities using NASA telescopes or your own.

Topic
On the left, the Sun shown in gold. It's fairly uniform. On the right, the Sun in gold has several bright active regions.

NASA, NOAA: Sun Reaches Maximum Phase in 11-Year Solar Cycle

6 min read

In a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday, representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the international…

Article3 days ago
A long, white, overexposed comet tail stretches from the upper left to the lower right against a circular blue background scattered with stars. At the center is a blank blue disk with a white circle representing the Sun. A time stamp at the bottom reads 2024/10/10 18:06.

ESA/NASA’s SOHO Spies Bright Comet Making Debut in Evening Sky

2 min read

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has captured images of the second-brightest comet to ever pass through its field of view,…

Article6 days ago
A close-up portion of the Sun appears in shades of yellow, brown, and white. A bright white burst of light, a solar flare, appears in the upper right.

Solar Storms and Flares

2 min read

Solar storms and flares are eruptions from the Sun that can affect us here on Earth.

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A large portion of the Sun fills most of the image, with black space in the top right corner. Surrounding the Sun is a model of the solar atmosphere, appearing net-like. The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft appears small and is flying into the atmosphere in the upper right.

NASA, ESA Missions Help Scientists Uncover How Solar Wind Gets Energy

5 min read

Since the 1960s, astronomers have wondered how the Sun’s supersonic “solar wind,” a stream of energetic particles that flows out…

Article2 months ago
A portion of the Sun, shown in dark orange and yellow. Over one bright yellow region are a few splotches of black – sunspots.

Sunspots

2 min read

Sunspots & Research

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This illustration depicts a cutaway of an ocean wave in sunset colors of pinks, blues, and purples. The wave sweeps up to the right, following the motion of luminescent pink, golden auroras on the horizon. The auroras curve upward through the sky, meeting up with a large bluish/purplish spiral galaxy in the upper left. On the far side of the galaxy is an exoplanet system and distant deep field galaxies. On the auroral path is Earth’s Moon, the asteroid Bennu, Mars, and Europa - all bodies in our solar system where water has been found. Above the horizon, the international space station hovers in the sky, while the Europa Clipper mission hovers near Jupiter’s icy moon. Molecular structures drift up from the ocean’s depths, becoming constellations once they reach the sky. They follow the auroras upward toward the galaxy, connecting life to the stars. A few meteors streak across the middle sky. Backlit by the setting sun, a NASA-funded research vessel sails in the foreground. Below the ocean surface, the vessel’s submersible explores the ocean’s depths. A ground-based observatory perches on a cliff on the horizon.

Going Beyond