http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Eruptive events on the sun can be wildly different. Some come just with a solar flare, some with an additional ejection of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and some with complex moving structures in association with changes in magnetic field lines that loop up into the sun's atmosphere, the corona. http://phys.org/news280596446.html Space & Earth Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:27:34 EST news280596446 The daffodil is one of the few plants with a 'corona', a crown-like structure also referred to as the 'trumpet'. New research suggests that the corona is not an extension of the petals as previously thought, but is a distinct organ sharing more genetic identity with stamens, the pollen-producing reproductive organs. http://phys.org/news280568660.html Biology Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:44:50 EST news280568660 (Phys.org)—The corona of the sun is the hot (over a million kelvin), gaseous outer region of its atmosphere. The corona is threaded by intense magnetic fields that extend upwards from the surface in braids that are twisted and sheared by the convective stirrings of the underlying dense atmosphere. Understanding the corona and its physical processes is essential to the development of a long-range space weather prediction capability. http://phys.org/news279185528.html Space & Earth Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:50:01 EST news279185528 A research team led by the University of Iowa reports to have directly measured a kind of turbulence that occurs in space plasma for the first time in the laboratory. http://phys.org/news274984660.html Physics Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:38:27 EST news274984660 (Phys.org)—The picture on the left shows a calm sun from Oct. 2010. The right side, from Oct. 2012, shows a much more active and varied solar atmosphere as the sun moves closer to peak solar activity, a peak known as solar maximum, predicted for 2013. Both images were captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observing light emitted from the 1 million degree plasma, which is a good temperature for observing the quiet corona. Credit: NASA/SDO http://phys.org/news273231718.html Space & Earth Tue, 27 Nov 2012 09:42:08 EST news273231718 A Japanese meteorology satellite captured the moving shadow from the total solar eclipse this week, and this animated series of images shows the shadow moving east-southeast across northeastern Australia and into the waters of the South Pacific Ocean. The images were taken by the MTSAT-1R in the 0.7 micrometer visible channel, as the Moon moved between the Sun and the Earth, blocking the Sun's light. http://phys.org/news272273460.html Space & Earth Fri, 16 Nov 2012 07:31:10 EST news272273460 On Nov. 13, 2012, a narrow corridor in the southern hemisphere experienced a total solar eclipse. The corridor lay mostly over the ocean but also cut across the northern tip of Australia where both professional and amateur astronomers gathered to watch. http://phys.org/news272130850.html Space & Earth Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:54:40 EST news272130850 Scientists and interested skywatchers have been flocking to Cairns, Australia to witness one of the most spellbinding astronomical sights: a total solar eclipse. The November 13/14 total solar eclipse will only be visible in its entirety to ground-based observers watching from northern Australia, but several webcasts will be available so that people around the world can watch as well. At about 22:11:48 UT on November 13 (it will be the morning of Nov. 14th in Australia) the Moon will pass directly in front of the Sun, and totality will only last about 2 minutes, with the Sun having risen just 14 degrees above the eastern horizon. The total time of the event, from first contact to fourth contact (the end of a solar eclipse when the disk of the Moon completely passes from the disk of the Sun) will be about 3 hours. http://phys.org/news272015551.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:10:01 EST news272015551 (Phys.org)—Tomorrow's total solar eclipse will only be visible in its entirety to ground-based observers watching from northern Australia, but ESA's Sun-watching Proba-2 satellite will have a ringside seat from its orbit around Earth. During a total solar eclipse the Moon moves in front of the Sun as seen from Earth, their separation and alignment such that the Moon appears large enough to temporarily block out the Sun's light. http://phys.org/news272011659.html Space & Earth Tue, 13 Nov 2012 06:47:50 EST news272011659 (Phys.org)—A total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from the northeastern Australia coast, along the Great Barrier Reef, about an hour after sunrise on November 14 there, which corresponds to the afternoon of Tuesday, November 13, in the United States. Jay Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts) and Chair of the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Eclipses [http://sites.williams.edu/iau-eclipses], is in Australia for viewing his 56th solar eclipse, working with about two dozen colleagues and students on their scientific observations. Pasachoff is currently based at Caltech in Pasadena, California, on sabbatical leave. http://phys.org/news271412139.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Nov 2012 08:18:43 EST news271412139 The very rare astronomical event of Venus, the nearest planet to Earth, passing in front of the solar disk on June 5th and 6th, 2012, was captured by an international team headed by Jay Pasachoff (Williams College and Caltech) and Glenn Schneider (University of Arizona) in the US, and Thomas Widemann (Paris Observatory in Meudon) and Paolo Tanga (Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in Nice) in France. http://phys.org/news270124158.html Space & Earth Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:29:39 EST news270124158 (Phys.org)—Four decades of active research and debate by the solar physics community have failed to bring consensus on what drives the sun's powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that can have profound "space weather" effects on Earth-based power grids and satellites in near-Earth geospace. http://phys.org/news267709493.html Physics Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:45:03 EST news267709493 A research team of the Department of Physics, Keio University, has discovered a molecular cloud with a peculiar helical structure by observation with the NRO 45m Telescope at Nobeyama Radio Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The team named it a "pigtail" molecular cloud from its morphology. The "pigtail" molecular cloud is located in the Galactic center, approximately 30,000 light years away from the solar system.  Giant molecular clouds in this region orbit around the Galactic center along two closed orbits.  At the bottom of the pigtail molecular cloud, these two orbits intersect.  The research team analyzed multiple molecular spectral lines in detail. The researchers have revealed that the two giant molecular clouds collide with one another at exactly the bottom of the "pigtail" molecular cloud. These findings suggest that the helical structure of the "pigtail" molecular cloud formed when the two molecular clouds with different orbits frictionally collided and the magnetic tube was twisted. http://phys.org/news266485260.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:43:24 EST news266485260 (Phys.org)—At the onset of a series of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on August 20, 2012, this bulbous CME certainly resembled a light bulb. It has the thin outer edge and a bright, glowing core at its center. CMEs are often bulbous, but it has been years since we've seen one with the elements (pun intended) of a light bulb. http://phys.org/news265280725.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:05:46 EST news265280725 (Phys.org) -- On July 11, NASA scientists will launch into space the highest resolution solar telescope ever to observe the solar corona, the million degree outer solar atmosphere. The instrument, called HI-C for High Resolution Coronal Imager, will fly aboard a Black Brant sounding rocket to be launched from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The mission will have just 620 seconds for its flight, spending about half of that time high enough that Earth's atmosphere will not block ultraviolet rays from the sun. By looking at a specific range of UV light, HI-C scientists hope to observe fundamental structures on the sun, as narrow as 100 miles across. http://phys.org/news260782722.html Space & Earth Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:38:50 EST news260782722 (Phys.org) -- NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. is leading an international effort to develop and launch the High Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, on a sounding rocket from the White Sands Missile Range at White Sands, N.M. Hi-C is a next-generation suborbital space telescope designed to capture the highest-resolution images ever taken of the million-degree solar corona. Key partners include the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, University of Central Lancashire in Lancashire, England, and the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news259568085.html Space & Earth Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:15:00 EST news259568085 (Phys.org) -- This image of a coronal hole on the sun bears a remarkable resemblance to the 'Sesame Street' character Big Bird. Coronal holes are regions where the sun's corona is dark. http://phys.org/news258192968.html Space & Earth Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:16:17 EST news258192968 Ever squirted water out of your mouth when playing in a swimming pool or lake? This Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) release by the Sun on April 15, 2012 looks reminiscent of such water spouting. http://phys.org/news253879699.html Space & Earth Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:09:00 EST news253879699 On July 6, 2011, a comet was caught doing something never seen before: die a scorching death as it flew too close to the sun. That the comet met its fate this way was no surprise – but the chance to watch it first-hand amazed even the most seasoned comet watchers. http://phys.org/news246211827.html Space & Earth Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:10:59 EST news246211827 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Sun, glowing with a surface temperature of about 5500 degrees Celsius, warms the Earth with its salutary light. Meanwhile the Sun's hot outer layer (the corona), with its temperature of over a million degrees, ejects a wind of charged particles at a rate equivalent to about one-millionth of the moon's mass each year. Some particles bombard the Earth, producing radio static, auroral glows, and (in extreme cases) disrupted global communications. Astronomers can only partially explain two longstanding, related questions: how is the corona heated to temperatures so much hotter than the surface? And how does the corona produce the wind? The answers to both involve turbulence in the Sun's atmosphere, and magnetic fields. http://phys.org/news237455789.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:56:42 EST news237455789 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument on board NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), have detected quasi-periodic waves in the low solar corona that travel at speeds as high as 2,000 kilometers per second (4.5 million miles per hour). These observations provide, for the first time, unambiguous evidence of propagating fast mode magnetosonic waves at such high speeds in the Sun’s low atmosphere. Dr. Wei Liu, a Stanford University Research Associate at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL) at the company’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto, presented the findings today at the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, in Las Cruces, N.M. A paper detailing the discovery has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. http://phys.org/news227381187.html Space & Earth Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:27:19 EST news227381187 (PhysOrg.com) -- A missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles say that our Sun is heading for a rest period even as it is acting up for the first time in years, according to scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). http://phys.org/news227279019.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:04:19 EST news227279019 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cue the surfing music. Scientists have spotted the iconic surfer's wave rolling through the atmosphere of the sun. This makes for more than just a nice photo-op: the waves hold clues as to how energy moves through that atmosphere, known as the corona. http://phys.org/news226684922.html Space & Earth Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:02:27 EST news226684922 Our Sun experiences regular eruptions of material into space, but solar physicists still have difficulty in explaining why these dramatic events take place. Now a group of scientists from the University of St Andrews think they have the answer: clouds of ionized gas (plasma) constrained by magnetic fields and known as 'plasmoids' that struggle to break free of the Sun's magnetic field. Dr Vasilis Archontis will present their work on Monday 18 April at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales. http://phys.org/news222447646.html Space & Earth Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:03:56 EST news222447646 During a total eclipse of the Sun, skywatchers are awed by the shimmering corona -- a faint glow that surrounds the Sun like gossamer flower petals. This outer layer of the Sun's atmosphere is, paradoxically, hotter than the Sun's surface, but so tenuous that its light is overwhelmed by the much brighter solar disk. The corona becomes visible only when the Sun is blocked, which happens for just a few minutes during an eclipse. http://phys.org/news213363143.html Space & Earth Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:10:02 EST news213363143 (PhysOrg.com) -- The corona of the sun is the hot (over a million kelvin), gaseous outer region of its atmosphere. The corona is threaded by intense magnetic fields that extend upwards from the surface in loops that are twisted and sheared by the convective stirrings of the underlying dense atmosphere. http://phys.org/news207579111.html Space & Earth Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:52:07 EST news207579111 NASA has chosen the Naval Research Laboratory's Wide-field Imager to be part of the Solar Probe Plus mission slated for launch no later than 2018. The Solar Probe Plus, a small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere approximately four million miles from our star's surface. It will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered in an effort to unlock the sun's biggest mysteries. http://phys.org/news204986032.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:34:19 EST news204986032 Why sunspots are a strong source of radio emissions and what information those emissions carry will be the focus of an invited talk by NJIT Research Professor Jeongwoo Lee tomorrow at the International Astronomical Union Symposium on the Physics of Sun and Star Spots in Ventura, CA. The event numbers among the top gatherings in the U.S. for people studying sunspots and related phenomena. http://phys.org/news201972151.html Space & Earth Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:22:47 EST news201972151 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Transition Region And Coronal Explorer, known as TRACE, conducted its final observations of the sun on June 21. http://phys.org/news197210718.html Space & Earth Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:45:35 EST news197210718 Musical sounds created by longitudinal vibrations within the Sun's atmosphere, have been recorded and accurately studied for the first time by experts at the University of Sheffield, shedding light on the Sun's magnetic atmosphere. http://phys.org/news196342870.html Space & Earth Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:41:36 EST news196342870