Solar wind as a research area focuses on the plasma outflow from the solar corona and its interaction with the heliosphere and planetary environments. It encompasses characterization of its composition, velocity distributions, turbulence, and magnetic structure, including fast and slow streams, coronal mass ejections, and associated shock waves. The field integrates in situ spacecraft measurements, remote sensing, and magnetohydrodynamic and kinetic modeling to study acceleration and heating mechanisms, magnetic reconnection, and wave–particle interactions. Solar wind research is central to understanding heliophysics, space weather forecasting, particle transport, and the coupling between solar activity and magnetospheres throughout the solar system.
Since July 2025, the European Space Agency's pair of Proba-3 satellites has already created 57 artificial solar eclipses. So far, the mission has collected more than 250 hours of high-resolution videos of the sun's atmosphere, ...
Astronomy
Apr 13, 2026
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Fast solar winds originating from the sun can have direct impacts on Earth—disrupting systems like GPS, aviation, electrical grids, and satellite and radio communications. A new paper by New Mexico State University astronomy ...
Astronomy
Apr 8, 2026
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A Southwest Research Institute-led study found that protons and heavy ions react differently to solar magnetic reconnection events, revealing a more complex magnetic engine powering the solar wind. Magnetic reconnection converts ...
Astronomy
Mar 31, 2026
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The sun, our nearest star, never stops breathing. Every second of every day, it exhales a vast stream of charged particles that sweeps outward through the solar system at hundreds of kilometers per second. We call it the ...
Astronomy
Mar 30, 2026
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What happens when a solar superstorm hits Mars? Thanks to the European Space Agency's Mars orbiters, we now know: glitching spacecraft and a supercharged upper atmosphere.
Astronomy
Mar 5, 2026
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A team of scientists from around the world has created the first system that can predict when and where extremely powerful solar storms, called superflares, are most likely to happen. These storms can disrupt power grids, ...
Astronomy
Feb 24, 2026
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For the first time, a much younger version of the sun has been caught red-handed blowing bubbles in the galaxy by astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The bubble—called an "astrosphere"—completely surrounds ...
Astronomy
Feb 23, 2026
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Researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi have uncovered new clues about how energy moves through the sun's outer atmosphere, using one of nature's rarest events as their window: total solar eclipses. Drawing on more than ...
Astronomy
Feb 18, 2026
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Using data collected by NASA's Parker Solar Probe during its closest approach to the sun, a University of Arizona-led research team has measured the dynamics and ever-changing "shell" of hot gas from where the solar wind ...
Space Exploration
Jan 30, 2026
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Images captured by NASA's Parker Solar Probe as the spacecraft made its record-breaking closest approach to the sun in December 2024 have now revealed new details about how solar magnetic fields responsible for space weather ...
Astronomy
Dec 11, 2025
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