August 23, 2023
[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] The sun influences the Earth's climate, but what is the sun's role in climate change?
Uncover the science behind the Sun’s complex processes, from its internal structure to the outermost layers of its atmosphere. Solar science explores everything from nuclear fusion at its core to the magnetic fields driving solar phenomena, helping us understand how the Sun powers our solar system and influences space weather.
August 23, 2023
[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] The sun influences the Earth's climate, but what is the sun's role in climate change?
July 31, 2023
[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] A giant sunspot - AR 3190 - is crossing the face of the sun this week. It'lll soon disappear, but is still visible as of January 21, 2023. What makes it?
August 1, 2022
[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] Limb darkening is an effect we can see on the sun where the edges of the sun are darker than the center, due to the amount of photosphere we're looking at.
May 3, 2022
[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] East and west on the sun are opposite from what you might expect. On the sun, east is to the left and west is to the right. Learn why here. (Image: NASA/SDO)
May 1, 2022
[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] Solar physicists often speak of the sun's X-ray flux as being high, or low. Solar flares are like waves on the background ocean of the sun's X-ray flux.
March 26, 2022
[Alex on EARTHSKY.ORG] Solar filaments (aka prominences, when viewed on the limb of the sun) are large, bright arcs of solar material and magnetic fields.
November 6, 2021
The Sun is really really big! It is difficult to get a true feel for how big it is because nothing in our daily life comes even close.
March 2, 2019
The Sun, as shown by the illustration to the left, can be divided into six layers. From the center out, the layers of the Sun are as follows: the solar interior composed of the core (which occupies the innermost quarter […]
February 5, 2019
The Sun is 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) away from the Earth (this distance varies slightly throughout the year because the Earth's orbit is an ellipse and not a perfect circle).
October 5, 2018
We have been getting a number of questions and comments lately regarding the possible relationship between solar activity and geological activity, such as earthquakes and volcanoes, so I have decided to look into the matter in more detail. First let […]
February 3, 2014
Although this might sound alarming, there really is nothing to worry about! It’s a normal part of the solar cycle – it heralds the second half of the solar cycle. Learn about why this happens. At a Glance The sun’s […]
September 8, 2010
The Sun is not just a big bright ball. It has a complicated and changing magnetic field, which forms things like sunspots and active regions. The magnetic field sometimes changes explosively, spitting out clouds of plasma and energetic particles into […]