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Can Spicules Explain the Mysteries of Coronal Heating?
Solar spicules as imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (NASA) There’s one recurring question I’ve been asking for nearly a decade: Why is the Sun’s corona (its atmosphere) so hot? When asking...
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What Do You See When SETI’s Allen Telescope Array Is Aimed At The Sun?
A comparison between an observation of the sun using the ATA's 2.75 GHz band (left) and SOHO's 195A filter. Both are near-simultaneous observations on Oct. 1, 2009 (Saint-Hilaire et al., 2011). And no,...
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When Venus Transited the Sun
The Venus transit taken with my iPhone 3GS through a telescope eyepiece atop Mt. Wilson on June 5, 2012. After the historic Venus transit and my involvement of the Astronomers Without Borders live...
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Plasmaloopalicious!
The magnetic loop containing hydrogen and nitrogen plasma evolves over 4 micro-seconds. Credit: Bellan & Stenson, 2012 There’s no better method to understand how something works than to build it...
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The Sun Just Unleashed a Massive Explosion — at Mars
NASA/ESA/SOHO The Earth and Mars are currently on exact opposite sides of the sun — a celestial situation known as “Mars solar conjunction” — a time when we have no way of directly communicating with...
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Massive, Long-Period Comets Are Way More Common Than We Thought
NASA/JPL-Caltech During the formation of the solar system, when the planets were molten messes and asteroid collisions (or “mudball” collisions, possibly) were commonplace, chunks of icy debris were...
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The Solar Eclipse Is Going to Cost the U.S. $700 Million? Good.
A photo of the 2012 annular eclipse from Malibu, Calif., using an old digital camera and solar filter (Ian O’Neill) The U.S. media is currently saturated with hot takes, histories, weird facts, “how...
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Sun Erupts With a Monster X9-Class Solar Flare — Earth Feels Its Punch
Credit: NASA/SDO This morning, the sun erupted with the most powerful solar flare in a decade, blasting the Earth’s upper atmosphere with energetic X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation. The...
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Coolest White Dwarf Is a Glimpse of What Happens Long After Our Sun Dies
All good things come to a cold and dusty end. [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger] “So, what do you think happens after you die?” The question was more of an accusation. The lady...
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The Sun Is a Beautifully Blank Billiard Ball for Halloween
For the festive season, our nearest star is keeping its choice of costume simple. I’m not saying the Sun isn’t being creative, it’s just not putting too much effort into this year’s stellar fancy...
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