Between October 11 and 13, the Sun unleashed a torrent of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Now, these powerful bursts of solar plasma and magnetic energy are on a collision course with Earth. Space weather forecasters expect them to arrive tonight and cause the northern lights—or Aurora Borealis—to stretch farther south than usual. NOAA’s Space Weather […]
Our Best Look Yet at a Solar Flare Reveals the Sun’s Wilder Side
It took astronomers a little over a year to analyze the sharpest-ever images of a solar flare. But they’re finally done, and the results are illuminating—literally and figuratively. Last year, NSF’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope captured a high-resolution image of a solar flare crossed with dark strands of coronal loops. Further analysis revealed that […]
Colossal Eruption Carves ‘Canyon of Fire’ Onto the Sun’s Surface
On July 15, a solar filament erupted from the Sun’s upper left side, ejecting a powerful blast of plasma and magnetic fields into space. The resulting explosion was so massive that it seared a deep, fiery scar of hot plasma and debris onto the star’s visible surface. While filament eruptions aren’t uncommon, astronomers had already […]
Something Big Is Twisting Mercury’s Crust
Mercury has it rough. Not only is it the smallest planet in the solar system, it’s also the closest to our Sun. This unfortunate position has caused Mercury to develop cracks and fractures across its surface, and generate stresses to its crust, a new study has found. Mercury is dry, rugged, and heavily cratered; the […]
Solar Orbiter Captures First Clear Views of Sun’s South Pole—and It’s a Hot Mess
For more than 60 years, various spacecraft and telescopes have journeyed through space to stare at the Sun, capturing haunting images of the giant ball of hot gas at the heart of our solar system. Our view of the star is limited, however, by Earth’s orbital plane, which allows us to observe the Sun’s equator […]
Sharpest View of the Sun Reveals Magnetic Stripes the Size of Manhattan
Scientists used the world’s largest solar telescope to capture incredibly detailed images of the Sun’s surface, revealing ultra-fine magnetic stripes rippling across the star and magnetic fields that resemble fluttering curtains, which modify light. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope stands tall at 13 feet (4 meters) atop a volcano in Maui, Hawaii, staring at […]
The U.S. Just Ran a Solar Storm Emergency Drill. The Real Deal Would Be a Catastrophe
A group of participants from several U.S. agencies took part in a first-of-its-kind exercise that tested their preparedness for a severe solar storm, revealing major cracks in scientists’ ability to forecast space weather—which could put crucial systems at risk. The Space Weather Operations, Research, and Mitigation (SWORM) task force, an inter-agency group that includes the […]
Scientists Discover a Massive, Glowing Blob of Hydrogen Very Close to Our Solar System
The birthplace of stars begins within large, cold clouds of gas and dust, which eventually collapse under the weight of gravity. Molecular clouds are vast cosmic entities that often stretch for hundreds of light-years, and scientists just discovered a massive one lurking in our celestial neighborhood. The cloud, named Eos after the Greek goddess of […]
This Is the Highest-Resolution Portrait of the Sun We’ve Ever Seen
Five years into its mission, NASA and ESA’s Solar Orbiter just snapped what might be the crispest, most detailed full-Sun view humanity has ever seen. The shot above—in all its mesmerizing, dull-yellow grandeur—captures our Sun’s million-degree corona in ultraviolet light. Taken on March 9, 2025, from about 47.8 million miles (77 million kilometers) away, this […]
A Mission to Take Sick Images of the Sun Got Its First Test Shots Back
Check out the vibrant first photo from PUNCH, a NASA mission that is hitting the ground running with some neat shots of the Sun. PUNCH—short for the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere—launched into low-Earth orbit last month, and its just taken its first images in what will hopefully be a fruitful period of […]