According to the experts at NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are en route to Earth, and they could be bringing a glowing gift: a potential auroral display reaching farther south than usual—possibly lighting up skies over parts of the northern U.S., like New York and Idaho. This space weather alert […]
Wild Video Shows Solar Winds Spiraling Millions of Miles From the Sun
Behold, the piping host particles of solar wind streaming from our Sun, caught in new footage from the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter. The video was captured by the orbiter’s Metis instrument, a coronagraph which blocks light directly from the Sun in order to see fainter phenomena in its outer atmosphere, or corona. New research describing the […]
Solar Orbiter Captures Incredible Footage of Tiny Jets Near the Sun’s South Pole
For nearly five years, a Sun-observing probe has been making close approaches to the Sun, capturing close-up views of the star’s polar regions to collect clues about its magnetic activity, corona, and atmosphere. During two recent flybys, Solar Orbiter spotted tiny jets of material that appear as thin, hair-like strands brightly flashing near the Sun’s […]
The Sun Does Something Weird Right Before It Unleashes Solar Flares
Intense solar flares—sudden bursts of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun—can shoot out hazardous levels of energy strong enough to reach Earth’s atmosphere. Predicting solar flares, however, isn’t as simple as forecasting a sunny day. A team of researchers co-led by heliophysicist Emily Mason of Predictive Sciences Inc. has identified a type of solar activity within […]