The Parker Solar Probe is the little engine that just keeps going and going by the sun. On September 27th, it made its 17th close approach and skimmed just 7.26 million kilometers (4.51 million miles) above the sun's "surface" ...
Astronomy
Oct 6, 2023
0
55
NASA's Parker Solar Probe has racked up an impressive list of superlatives in its first five years of operations: It's the closest spacecraft to the sun, the fastest human-made object and the first mission to ever "touch ...
Space Exploration
Sep 22, 2023
0
417
Nearly 5,000 kilometers above the sun's surface lies a century-old question for solar physicists—how are temperatures in the star's upper atmosphere (corona) hundreds of times hotter than temperatures at the sun's visible ...
Astronomy
Jun 14, 2023
1
95
The further we move away from a heat source, the cooler the air gets. Bizarrely, the same can't be said for the sun, but University of Otago scientists may have just explained a key part of why.
Astronomy
Mar 24, 2022
1
246
The visible surface of the sun, or the photosphere, is around 6,000°C. But a few thousand kilometers above it—a small distance when we consider the size of the sun—the solar atmosphere, also called the corona, is hundreds ...
Astronomy
May 25, 2021
23
1059
Rain is a common phenomenon on Earth. There is a similar phenomenon on the Sun, called coronal rain. It is related to the coronal heating and magnetic field, and plays a fundamental role in the mass cycle between the hot, ...
Astronomy
Apr 22, 2021
11
217
Coronal heating is a topic dedicated to explaining how the corona may be heated up to a temperature of millions of degrees, far above that of the photosphere. To transport magnetic energy into the corona, Alfvén-wave turbulence ...
Astronomy
Apr 6, 2020
0
165
Scientists have discovered tadpole-shaped jets coming out of regions with intense magnetic fields on the Sun. Unlike those living on Earth, these "tadpoles"—formally called pseudo-shocks—are made entirely of plasma, the ...
Space Exploration
Feb 19, 2019
2
224
The first ever spacecraft to fly directly toward the Sun is poised to blast off Saturday, on a mission to plunge into our star's sizzling atmosphere and unlock the mysteries of the center of the solar system.
Space Exploration
Aug 11, 2018
1
479
NASA is poised to launch a $1.5 billion spacecraft on a brutally hot journey toward the Sun, offering scientists the closest-ever view of our strange and mysterious star.
Space Exploration
Aug 8, 2018
0
84
