The solar dynamo is a research area focused on understanding the physical mechanisms by which the Sun’s internal plasma motions generate and sustain its large-scale magnetic field. It integrates magnetohydrodynamics, turbulence, rotation, and convection to model the conversion of kinetic energy into magnetic energy via dynamo action, typically involving differential rotation (the Ω-effect) and helical turbulence (the α-effect). Research addresses the solar cycle, polarity reversals, flux-transport processes, and the role of tachocline shear and convection-zone dynamics, using analytical theory, numerical simulations, and helioseismic constraints to test and refine dynamo models.
Scientists have developed a new way to predict the strength of the sun's next activity cycle up to seven years before it reaches its peak.
Astrobiology
Jul 19, 2026
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Researchers are closer to unraveling a longstanding solar mystery surrounding the extreme thinness of the sun's tachocline layer of strong shearing motion—a region believed to be critical for creating the violent eruptions ...
Astronomy
Jul 8, 2026
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Internal changes due to the sun's "active biorhythm" have become increasingly "skin-deep" over the past four solar activity cycles, according to a new study.
Astronomy
May 27, 2026
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When you look up at the sky on a sunny day, the sun might seem like a bright spot, unchanging in the sky. But the sun is a complex, dynamic celestial body, wrapped in electrical currents and magnetic fields that constantly ...
Astronomy
May 24, 2026
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From birth to death, stars generally slow by 100 to 1,000 times their initial rotation rates; in other words, they "spin down." The sun's total angular momentum has declined as material is gradually blown off at the surface ...
Astronomy
Apr 27, 2026
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Every eleven years, the sun's magnetic field flips. Sunspots—dark, cooler regions on the sun's surface that mark intense magnetic activity and often trigger solar eruptions—appear at mid-latitudes and migrate toward the star's ...
Astronomy
Mar 17, 2026
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New research by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the National Science Foundation's National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF-NCAR) has developed a new tool providing a first step toward the ability to forecast ...
Planetary Sciences
Feb 19, 2026
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For the first time, scientists have used satellite data to create a 3D map of the sun's interior magnetic field, the fundamental driver of solar activity. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, should ...
The sun is governed by a strict rhythm. The magnetic activity of the sun displays a cyclic variation, reaching a maximum approximately every eleven years. Two enormous plasma circulations, each in one solar hemisphere, set ...
Astronomy
Nov 5, 2025
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Scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) have uncovered the intricate magnetic heartbeat of a distant star remarkably similar to our own sun—but much younger and more active. This study, part of ...
Astronomy
Oct 10, 2025
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