Astro Blog

By Adrian Cho , Science.  Excerpt: A new neutrino experiment in China has put the world on notice that it’s poised to make a breakthrough. The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), a plastic sphere 10 stories high filled with a liquid that flashes when certain particles pass through it, detects neutrinos streaming from nuclear power plants 53 kilometers away. Neutrinos come in three types that “oscillate,” or morph into one another, as they zip along at near–light-speed, a phenomenon physicists have yet to fully puzzle out. Now, JUNO has measured with unequaled precision two of the six parameters that describe the oscillations, as reported today in Nature . The result, based on just 2 months of data, suggests JUNO is on track to reach its main goal: sorting the neutrinos by mass. ...Nearly massless, neutrinos interact with other matter so rarely that every second trillions pass through each of us....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/first-re...

By Paul Voosen , Science.  Excerpt: When violent eruptions from the Sun slam into Earth’s magnetic field, they do more than paint aurorae across the night sky. They can scramble the electronics of satellites and induce powerful ground currents that knock out electrical grids. It’s been estimated that a one-in-a-100-year solar storm like the 1859 Carrington Event could cause more than $3 trillion of damage to the power grid alone. ...In a study published today in Space Weather , the researchers describe a provocative proposal called “StormWall”: a fleet of satellites that would release hundreds of tons of gases into space just before a solar storm strikes Earth. Computer simulations suggest the artificial cloud could cut the intensity of a major solar storm by half or more....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/radical-proposal-would-block-solar-storms-orbital-airbag . 

By Katherine Kornei , The New York Times.  Excerpt: If our species manages to hang on for a few billion additional years, we might be in for a wild ride — stars passing in the vicinity of the sun could cause planets in our solar system to collide or even be ejected, according  to a paper published last month  in the journal Icarus. The findings even suggest a scenario in which our world ends not consumed by the sun, but in a carom prompted by the powers of gravity. ...The researchers found that the triple threat is a massive star that makes a close approach to the sun at a relatively low velocity, magnifying its gravitational effect. But the alignment of all these attributes is rare. “A huge fraction of stellar passages are inconsequential to our solar system,” Dr. Kaib said. The researchers found that 0.5 percent of their simulations resulted in planets colliding or a planet being ejected from the solar system....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/...

By European Space Agency (ESA).  Excerpt: Thanks to its  newly tilted orbit  around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led  Solar Orbiter  spacecraft is the first to image the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter’s unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the  solar cycle  and the workings of space weather. ...Any image you have ever seen of the Sun was taken from around the Sun’s equator. This is because Earth, the other planets, and all other operational spacecraft orbit the Sun within a flat disc around the Sun called the ecliptic plane. By tilting its orbit out of this plane, Solar Orbiter reveals the Sun from a whole new angle....  Full article at https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Solar_Orbiter/Solar_Orbiter_gets_world-first_views_of_the_Sun_s_poles . 

By Phie Jacobs , Science.  Excerpt: Researchers...aren’t quite sure why...the corona, is so much hotter than the Sun’s surface—or why it can violently eject huge volumes of plasma that can mess with Earth’s magnetic field and scramble power grids. ...air turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere blurs our view of it, making it hard to discern fine details. Now, using an adaptive optics system installed at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO), the authors of a new  Nature Astronomy  study have removed this blur—producing  the clearest images and videos to date of the Sun’s atmosphere . In  a statement , BBSO optical engineer and study co-author Nicolas Gorceix likened the new technology to “a pumped-up autofocus and optical image stabilization in your smartphone camera, but correcting for the errors in the atmosphere rather than the user’s shaky hands.” ...researchers also captured a phenomenon known as coronal rain, where city-size droplets of hot plasma in the Sun’s corona...

By Valeriy Vasilyev et al, Science.  Editor's Summary: Solar flares are bright, transient, multiwavelength emissions from active regions on the Sun. The most intense directly observed solar flares release energies of about 10 32  erg. It is unclear whether the Sun can produce more intense flares than that or how often they might occur. Vasilyev  et al . investigated brightness measurements of 56,000 Sun-like stars observed by the Kepler space telescope. They identified almost 3000 bright stellar flares with energies of about 10 34  to 10 35  erg, which are called superflares. The occurrence rate is about one superflare per star per century. If the Sun behaves like the stars in this sample, then it could produce superflares at a similar rate. —Keith T. Smith.  Full article at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl5441 . 

https://www.mercury-messenger.org/history-culture/galileo-telescope By Shanil Virani, Astronomical Society of the Pacific - Mercury online Excerpt: Between January 7 and January 13, 1610, a series of observations was made that would forever change how we would view the cosmos. The observer detailed in this log book a discovery made using a relatively new invention at that time. The observer had discovered four small, point sources of light very close to the (giant) planet Jupiter. On January 10, one of them disappeared for a short period. The observer attributed the disappearance of the object as being hidden behind Jupiter. Given his extensive observations, he was now forced to conclude that these four points of light were orbiting Jupiter and not Earth. The observer, Galileo Galilei, and his two small pieces of glass would usher in a scientific revolution that reverberates to this day. Until this discovery, and for some 1,500 years prior to Galileo, our ancestors accepted the m...

By MICHAEL GRESHKO , Science.  Excerpt: Earth got its bell rung this past weekend, sucker-punched by the Sun itself in the biggest geomagnetic storm in more than 2 decades. The storm—triggered when the magnetic fields in blobs of plasma from the Sun collided with Earth’s magnetic field—not only yielded once-in-a-generation aurorae at latitudes as low as the Florida Keys, but also took scientists’ breath away with its power. ...This weekend’s fireworks began with Active Region 3664, a giant cluster of sunspots, more than 15 times wider than Earth, where the Sun’s magnetic field is highly concentrated. The magnetic field lines twisted and eventually snapped, causing the cluster to fling off a series of enormous, billion-ton blobs of plasma toward Earth, each embedded with strong magnetic fields. The detection of at least five of these expulsions, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), caused U.S. forecasters to  issue a “severe” G4 watch —its first since 2005—on 9 May, the day ...

https://www.science.org/content/article/planets-around-dead-stars-offer-glimpse-solar-system-s-future-after-sun-swallows-us By JONATHAN O’CALLAGHAN , Science.  Excerpt: In about 5 billion years the Sun will balloon up into a red giant, consuming Mercury, probably Venus, and maybe even Earth. But even if the outer planets avoid being swallowed up, they might eventually get pulled in or ejected from the Solar System. A new discovery suggests they can survive intact. Using NASA’s JWST space telescope, astronomers have for the first time directly imaged planets on Solar System–like orbits around white dwarfs, the dead stars left after Sun-like stars swell into red giants and subside. The planets follow orbits resembling those of the giant planets in the outer Solar System—big enough for them to have escaped the inferno.... For GSS A Changing Cosmos chapter 1.

https://eos.org/articles/mapping-the-moon-to-shield-astronauts-from-radiation By Sierra Bouchér , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: In October 1989, the Sun spit a blast of high-energy particles into the solar system. Earth’s protective magnetic field kept us safe, but the Moon received an intense dose: More than 8 times the radiation received by plant workers during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster scorched the barren lunar surface. As NASA’s Artemis III mission prepares to return explorers to the Moon in 2025, scientists are working to protect them from this kind of unpredictable outburst from the Sun and other radiation from deep space. To do this, they’re turning to the Moon’s natural barriers. By mapping the topography of the lunar surface, researchers have calculated the shielding potential of each mountain range, crater wall, and shadowed slope near the south pole—Artemis III’s target. Their work will guide decisionmaking for the landing location of this mission and beyond.... 

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/protecting-power-grids-from-space-weather By Rachel Fritts , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Activity from the Sun, such as  solar flares , can cause fluctuations in Earth’s geomagnetic field that send electrical currents flowing through power grids. These  geomagnetically induced currents  (GICs) can cause problems ranging from temporary voltage instability to widespread blackouts to reduced life spans for transformers. It is therefore important to develop effective mitigation strategies that protect against GIC-induced power disruptions while maintaining power to consumers. Suggested solutions have included installing equipment such as capacitors to block GICs and making changes to network configurations.  Mac Manus et al .  worked with the energy company Transpower New Zealand Ltd. to test four mitigation strategies that could be used throughout the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The team did this by ...modeling potential ...

https://www.science.org/content/article/peak-solar-activity-arriving-sooner-expected-reaching-levels-not-seen-20-years By ZACK SAVITSKY , Science.  Excerpt: In 2019, as the Sun approached a minimum in its 11-year cycle of magnetic activity, a dozen scientists assembled for a traditional exercise: forecasting the next peak. Now, a few years into the Sun’s resurgence, it’s becoming clear that the official prediction from the panel, convened by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the International Space Environment Service (ISES), missed the mark. The Sun’s activity has already surpassed the forecast, reaching levels not seen in 20 years, and solar maximum may arrive within the next year, months ahead of its presumed schedule.... 

https://eos.org/articles/magnetic-tangles-drive-solar-wind By  atthew R. Francis , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Though the  effects  of solar wind are well documented, what  causes  it has been a mystery for more than 50 years. Now, thanks to a solar close-up, some researchers think the energy behind the flow of particles comes from the Sun’s own magnetic fields snapping together. The process, known as reconnection, may illuminate not only solar wind but winds from other stars as well as the behavior of comets and planetary atmospheres. In part to solve the solar wind mystery—and perhaps learn ways to spot solar storms before they form—researchers developed NASA’s  Parker Solar Probe , which launched in 2018 and has been flying in ever-closer orbits to the Sun. ...Reconnection occurs in plasmas when magnetic fields pointing in opposite directions cancel out, rapidly dumping their energy into the surrounding electrons and ions. A simplified picture would be takin...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/06/07/parker-solar-probe-flies-into-the-fast-solar-wind-and-finds-its-source/ By  Robert Sanders , UC Berkeley News.  Excerpt: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has flown close enough to the sun to detect the fine structure of the solar wind close to where it is generated at the sun’s surface, revealing details that are lost as the wind exits the corona as a uniform blast of charged particles. It’s like seeing jets of water emanating from a showerhead through the blast of water hitting you in the face. In a paper to be published this week in the journal  Nature , a team of scientists led by Stuart D. Bale, a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and James Drake of the University of Maryland-College Park, report that the Parker Solar Probe has detected streams of high-energy particles that match the supergranulation flows within coronal holes, which suggests that these are the regions where the so-called “fast” solar wi...

https://eos.org/agu-news/brighter-skies-ahead By Heather Goss , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: ...An impressive cadre of Sun-targeted missions has recently come online to replace or support an aging fleet of spacecraft, just as solar max is about to set in. ...In February 2020, Solar Orbiter launched from Florida, carrying 10 state-of-the-art instruments to make the closest ever observations of the Sun. Daniele Telloni and colleagues, in “ A New Journey Around (and Around) the Sun , ” describe for us “the groundbreaking observations that Solar Orbiter has made already,” such as the “short-lived, small-scale flickering bright spots, nicknamed ‘campfires,’ in the solar corona.” Not only will this joint European Space Agency–NASA mission shed new light on the unsolved mysteries of the Sun, but also it’s revealing a new side of Venus from its 2020 flyby. ...in our next feature, “ Shake, Rattle, and Probe .” Helioseismology is a burgeoning discipline that allows physicists to better understand...

https://www.science.org/content/article/nearby-star-midlife-crisis-suggests-our-own-sun-may-lose-its-spots-again-decades By Zack Savitsky, Science Magazine.  Excerpt: Long magnetic lull on star mimics the Maunder Minimum, when the Sun’s spots largely disappeared 400 years ago. Soon after European astronomers developed the first telescopes at the start of the 17th century, they observed dark spots speckling the Sun’s surface. They also handed their modern successors a mystery. From about 1645 to 1715, the spots, now known to be indicators of solar activity, all but disappeared. Gathering sunspot counts and other historical observations, astronomer John Eddy concluded nearly 50 years ago that the Sun had essentially taken a 70-year nap, which he called  the Maunder Minimum  after an astronomer couple who had previously studied it. Now, it appears the Sun is not the only star that takes long naps. By building a decades-long record of observations of a few dozen stars at...

https://eos.org/articles/why-did-sunspots-disappear-for-70-years-nearby-star-holds-clues By Kimberly M. S. Cartier , Eos/AGU. Excerpt: Every 11 years, the number of spots dotting the surface of the Sun increases and decreases like clockwork. Astronomers have been tracking the 11-year sunspot cycle for more than 400 years, using it to better understand the chaotic magnetic field the Sun puts out. (The current solar cycle, number 25, started in 2019.) The timing of the solar cycle is remarkably consistent: Sunspot numbers rise and fall, rise and fall…except for that time that they disappeared and weren’t seen again for 70 years. That period of time, from 1645 to 1715, is known as the  Maunder Minimum , named after 19th century British astronomers Edward and Annie Maunder. Astronomers still don’t understand why the Sun ceased making sunspots for 70 years, but a new analysis of more than 5 decades of measurements of nearby stars has identified one that might be undergoing its own Maund...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/12/15/nasa-touches-sun-spacecraft-parker By  Timothy Bella , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: A NASA spacecraft became the first to “touch the sun,” scientists announced Tuesday — a long-awaited milestone and a potential giant leap in understanding the sun’s influence on the solar system. The Parker Solar Probe successfully flew through the sun’s corona, or upper atmosphere, in April to sample particles and its magnetic fields, according to research published in the journal  Physical Review Letters . The findings were also announced Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in New Orleans. ...The spacecraft, launched three years ago in an effort to study the sun and its dangers, will help scientists uncover significant and unknown information about Earth’s closest star, including how the flow of the sun’s particles can influence the planet. ...The spacecraft’s brush with the sun is the culmination of a missio...

https://eos.org/articles/record-setting-flare-spotted-on-the-nearest-star-to-the-sun Source: By  Katherine Kornei , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: As stellar neighbors go, the Sun is a pretty good one—it occasionally produces a sizeable solar flare, but mostly, it leaves Earth well enough alone. The Proxima Centauri solar system isn’t so lucky, however: Blasts of electromagnetic radiation from Proxima Centauri, the next nearest star to our own, can be potentially lethal to nearby planets. Researchers recently spotted the brightest stellar flare ever detected from Proxima Centauri. That flare might have contributed to stripping away the atmosphere of one of its planets, a roughly Earth mass world that potentially hosts liquid water on its surface. ...Destroyer of Atmospheres ...Proxima Centauri’s faintness stems from its low mass—it’s what astronomers refer to as an M dwarf star, defined as having a mass between roughly 10% and 50% the mass of the Sun. M dwarf stars are the most common sta...

https://sci.esa.int/web/solar-orbiter/-/solar-orbiter-s-first-images-reveal-campfires-on-the-sun   Source:   By European Space Agency (ESA).  Excerpt: The first images from Solar Orbiter, a new Sun-observing mission by ESA and NASA, have revealed omnipresent miniature solar flares, dubbed 'campfires', near the surface of our closest star. ...Solar Orbiter, launched on 10 February 2020, carries six remote-sensing instruments... and four in situ instruments that monitor the environment around the spacecraft. By comparing the data from both sets of instruments, scientists will get insights into the generation of the solar wind, the stream of charged particles from the Sun that influences the entire Solar System. ...The campfires shown in the first image set were captured by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) from Solar Orbiter's first perihelion, the point in its elliptical orbit closest to the Sun. At that time, the spacecraft was only 77 million km away from the Sun, a...