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.
In recent years, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has given us a close-up look at the sun. Among the probe's revelations was the presence of numerous kinks, or "switchbacks," in magnetic field lines in the sun's outer atmosphere. ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 8, 2025
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Spirals of solar wind can spin off larger solar eruptions and disrupt Earth's magnetic field, yet they are too difficult to detect with our current single-location warning system, according to a new study from the University ...
Astronomy
Oct 6, 2025
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73
On its record-breaking pass by the sun late last year, NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured stunning new images from within the sun's atmosphere. These newly released images—taken closer to the sun than we've ever been before—are ...
Astronomy
Jul 14, 2025
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62
New research utilizing data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe has provided the first direct evidence of a phenomenon known as the "helicity barrier" in the solar wind. This discovery, published in Physical Review X by Queen ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 8, 2025
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77
Scientists analyzing data from NASA's CODEX (Coronal Diagnostic Experiment) investigation have successfully evaluated the instrument's first images, revealing the speed and temperature of material flowing out from the sun. ...
Astronomy
Jun 11, 2025
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34
Following a successful launch in the early hours of Wednesday morning (12 March 2025) U.K. time, the PUNCH spacecraft are poised to begin their two-year mission to study the sun's outer atmosphere and its transformation into ...
Space Exploration
Mar 13, 2025
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24
Qi Zhang, a doctoral student at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and Umeå University, explores in her doctoral thesis the interaction between Mars and the stream of charged particles from the sun, the solar wind. Her ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 7, 2025
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43
Mars's atmosphere and climate are impacted by interactions with solar wind, a stream of plasma comprised of protons and electrons that flows from the sun's outermost atmosphere (corona), traveling at speeds of 400–1,000 kilometers ...
Operations teams have confirmed NASA's mission to "touch" the sun survived its record-breaking closest approach to the solar surface on Dec. 24, 2024.
Space Exploration
Dec 28, 2024
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74
NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission has detected magnetic distortions in solar wind, known as switchbacks. To better understand these phenomena, whose origins remain uncertain, a study was conducted by a network of collaborators. ...
Astronomy
Dec 6, 2024
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