Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 7, 2023

Ethereal 'halo' and light arcs around the sun captured in photos of ultra-rare phenomena

A scientist recently snapped a series of shining arcs and halos of light surrounding the sun in the sky above the U.K., including an exceptionally rare ring of light that circled the entire sky. Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, captured the unusual light show...

Jun 9, 2023

1st mission to 'touch' the sun discovers a mysterious source of solar wind

A NASA spacecraft has skimmed through the sun's hellish atmosphere to discover a mysterious source of solar wind. Away from the sun, the solar wind is a sloshing spray of energetic plasma. But get closer — as NASA's Parker Solar Probe recently did by diving within 13 million miles (21...

Jun 23, 2023

Earth's thermosphere reaches highest temperature in 20 years after being bombarded by solar storms

Earth's thermosphere recently hit a near 20-year temperature peak after soaking up energy from geomagnetic storms that bashed Earth this year. The temperature in the second-highest layer of the atmosphere will likely continue to climb over the next few years as the sun's activity ramps up, which could impact Earth-orbiting...

Jun 24, 2023

Solar maximum could hit us harder and sooner than we thought. How dangerous will the sun's chaotic peak be?

Update: On Oct. 25, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center released an updated prediction for Solar Cycle 25. The new forecast more closely matches the timeframe laid out in this feature and agrees with the predictions of experts who spoke to Live Science about the upcoming solar maximum. From a distance,...

Jun 25, 2023

See the 'monster' sunspot that launched the Carrington Event, the most devastating solar storm in recorded history

On Sept. 1, 1859, British astronomer Richard Carrington was investigating a strange cluster of dark blobs in the sun's atmosphere when a bright blast of light caught his eye. Shining for nearly five minutes, the flash would later make history as the first recorded solar flare ever observed — but...

Jun 29, 2023

Rare streaks of light above US are a sign that solar maximum is fast approaching

A photographer recently snapped images of vibrant green streaks of light hanging apparently motionless in the star-filled sky above a U.S. mountain range. The eerie light show may look like auroras, but it's actually an even rarer phenomenon. Aaron Watson captured the stunning display near the West Elk Mountains in...

Jul 3, 2023

Could a powerful solar storm wipe out the internet?

In Becky Chambers' 2019 novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate, a massive solar storm wipes out Earth's internet, leaving a group of astronauts stranded in space with no way to phone home. It's a terrifying prospect, but could a solar storm knock out the internet in real life? And if...

Jul 4, 2023

Earth is about to reach its farthest point from the sun. So why is it so hot?

Temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere might be high, but on July 6, our planet will be at its farthest point from the sun this year. It's an annual occasion called aphelion, a term that comes from the Greek words apo (away) and helios (sun), according to Almanac. If it seems...

Jul 4, 2023

Giant sunspot grew 10 times wider than Earth in just 48 hours, then spat X-class flare right at us

An enormous, rapidly growing sunspot on the sun's surface has unleashed a mighty X-class flare — the most powerful type of solar flare the sun is capable of producing. The solar storm slammed into our planet, triggering brief radio blackouts in parts of the U.S. and elsewhere, but it could...

Jul 5, 2023

Sunspot numbers hit 20-year high, indicating the sun is fast approaching its explosive peak

The sun is partying like it's 2002. The number of observed sunspots on our home star last month was the highest for almost 21 years. It's one of the clearest signs yet we are fast approaching the sun's chaotic peak, known as solar maximum — and that it will be...

Jul 6, 2023

Dazzling 'shooting stars' discovered in the sun's atmosphere. What are they really?

In a startling case of star-ception, our sun, which is a star, appears to have its own shooting stars streaking through its white-hot atmosphere. Technically, these solar shooting stars aren't stars at all — they're fireballs created by a phenomenon known as coronal rain. During this process, hot plasma cools...

Jul 17, 2023

'Cannibal' coronal mass ejection that devoured 'dark eruption' from sun will smash into Earth today (July 18)

A cannibal coronal mass ejection (CME) birthed from multiple solar storms, including a surprise dark eruption, is currently on a collision course with Earth and could trigger a weak geomagnetic storm on our planet when it hits on Tuesday (July 18). CMEs are large, fast-moving clouds of magnetized plasma and...

Jul 20, 2023

Rising and setting 'Omega sun' melts into a 'lava-like blob' in trippy mirage photos

Photographers in the Mediterranean recently captured stunning images of the sun appearing to melt toward the horizon as it set one day and then rose again the next day, creating trippy lava-like blobs in the sky. On both occasions, an enormous sunspot was also clearly visible on the warped sun's...

Aug 4, 2023

Massive solar explosion felt on Earth, the moon and Mars simultaneously for the 1st time ever

On Oct. 28, 2021, a huge burst of plasma and magnetized particles erupted from the sun. The massive solar outburst washed over Earth, the moon and Mars, bathing them in radiation. And, for the first time, instruments on all three bodies measured the same event almost simultaneously. On Mars, the...

Aug 9, 2023

15 dazzling images of the sun

The sun's intense brightness makes it unsafe for us to get a detailed view of it by traditional means. So, for over 200 years, humans have relied on different modes of photography to safely glimpse the nuances of our star. Now, a range of telescopes and imagers capture the details,...