Sun News

June 1, 2024

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Mystery of 'Slow' Solar Wind Unveiled by Solar Orbiter Mission

May 28, 2024 — Scientists have come a step closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the 'slow' solar wind, using data collected during the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's first close journey to the ...

Intriguing Nearby World Sized Between Earth, Venus

May 23, 2024 — Astronomers have discovered a planet between the sizes of Earth and Venus only 40 light-years ...

Planet Hunters Unveil Massive Catalog of Strange Worlds

May 23, 2024 — While thousands of planets have been discovered around other stars, relatively little is known about them. A NASA catalog featuring 126 exotic, newly discovered worlds includes detailed measurements that allow for comparisons with our own solar ...

Potentially Habitable 'Exo-Venus' With Earth-Like Temperature Discovered

May 23, 2024 — Astronomers have made the rare and tantalizing discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet 40 light-years away that may be just a little warmer than our own world. The potentially-habitable planet, named Gliese 12 b, orbits its host star every 12.8 days, ...

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The Origin of the Sun's Magnetic Field Could Lie Close to Its Surface

May 22, 2024 — Surprise findings suggest sunspots and solar flares could be generated by a magnetic field within the Sun's outermost layers. If confirmed, the findings could help scientists better predict space ...

Hubble Views the Dawn of a Sun-Like Star

May 15, 2024 — Looking like a glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in a new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The triple-star system is ...

Squeezed by Neighbors, Planet Glows With Molten Lava

May 9, 2024 — Astrophysicists discovered that an exoplanet is covered with so many active volcanoes that seen from a distance it would take on a fiery, glowing-red ...

Astrophysicists Discover a Novel Method for Hunting the First Stars

May 9, 2024 — A recent study has discovered a novel method for detecting the first-generations stars, known as Population III (Pop III) stars, which have never been directly detected. These potential discoveries ...

Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

May 8, 2024 — Researchers may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of any rocky planet ...

New Discoveries About Jupiter's Magnetosphere

May 6, 2024 — New discoveries about Jupiter could lead to a better understanding of Earth's own space environment and influence a long-running scientific debate about the solar system's largest ...

Probing the Effects of Interplanetary Space on Asteroid Ryugu

Apr. 29, 2024 — Samples reveal evidence of changes experienced by the surface of asteroid Ryugu, some probably due to micrometeoroid ...

Researchers Find Oldest Undisputed Evidence of Earth's Magnetic Field

Apr. 24, 2024 — A new study has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth ...

Eruption of Mega-Magnetic Star Lights Up Nearby Galaxy

Apr. 24, 2024 — While ESA's satellite INTEGRAL was observing the sky, it spotted a burst of gamma-rays -- high-energy photons -- coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray ...

Astronomers Uncover Methane Emission on a Cold Brown Dwarf

Apr. 17, 2024 — Astronomers have discovered methane emission on a brown dwarf, an unexpected finding for such a cold and isolated world. The findings suggest that this brown dwarf might generate aurorae similar to ...

Most Massive Stellar Black Hole in Our Galaxy Found

Apr. 16, 2024 — Astronomers have identified the most massive stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. This black hole was spotted in data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission because ...

Stellar Winds of Three Sun-Like Stars Detected for the First Time

Apr. 12, 2024 — An international research team has for the first time directly detected stellar winds from three Sun-like stars by recording the X-ray emission from their astrospheres, and placed constraints on the ...

Exoplanets True to Size

Apr. 12, 2024 — A star's magnetic field must be considered in order to correctly determine the characteristics of exoplanets from observations by space telescopes such as Kepler, James Webb, or PLATO. ...

The Hidden Role of the Milky Way in Ancient Egyptian Mythology

Apr. 10, 2024 — Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut. The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have ...

CHEOPS Detects a 'Rainbow' on an Exoplanet

Apr. 5, 2024 — The CHEOPS space telescope is providing new information on the mysterious exoplanet WASP-76b. This ultra-hot giant is characterized by an asymmetry between the amount of light observed on its eastern ...

Neutron Stars Are Key to Understanding Elusive Dark Matter

Apr. 5, 2024 — Scientists may be one step closer to unlocking one of the great mysteries of the universe after calculating that neutron stars might hold a key to helping us understand elusive dark ...

Unlocking Supernova Stardust Secrets

Mar. 28, 2024 — New research has discovered a rare dust particle trapped in an ancient extra-terrestrial meteorite that was formed by a star other than our ...

Long-Period Oscillations Control the Sun's Differential Rotation

Mar. 27, 2024 — The interior of the Sun does not rotate at the same rate at all latitudes. The physical origin of this differential rotation is not fully understood. It turns out, long-period solar oscillations ...

Distant 'Space Snowman' Unlocks Mystery of How Some Dormant Deep Space Objects Become 'Ice Bombs'

Mar. 27, 2024 — Researchers found that the double-lobed object, which is officially named Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth and resembles a snowman, may have ancient ices stored deep within it from when the object ...

Turbulence Within Solar Transients Imaged

Mar. 27, 2024 — Scientists captured images showing the development of turbulence as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) interacted with the ambient solar wind in the circumsolar ...

Tiniest 'Starquake' Ever Detected

Mar. 26, 2024 — An orange dwarf star has yielded the tiniest 'starquakes' ever recorded, measured by an international team of ...

James Webb Space Telescope Captures the End of Planet Formation

Mar. 22, 2024 — How much time do planets have to form from a swirling disk of gas and dust around a star? A new study gives scientists a better idea of how our own solar system came to ...

Secrets of the Van Allen Belt Revealed in New Study

Mar. 21, 2024 — A challenge to space scientists to better understand our hazardous near-Earth space environment has been set in a new ...

Ancient Ice May Still Exist in Distant Space Objects, Researchers Find

Mar. 14, 2024 — A new paper presents findings about the Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth, shedding new light on the preservation of volatile substances like carbon monoxide in such distant celestial bodies. The ...

Space Tourism? Cosmic Radiation Exposure

Mar. 5, 2024 — Space weather experts are urging regulators and space tourism innovators to work together to protect their passengers and crews from the risks of space weather radiation ...

Groundbreaking Survey Reveals Secrets of Planet Birth Around Dozens of Stars

Mar. 5, 2024 — A team of astronomers has shed new light on the fascinating and complex process of planet formation. The research brings together observations of more than 80 young stars that might have planets ...

JWST Captures the End of Planet Formation

Mar. 4, 2024 — The James Webb Space Telescope is helping scientists uncover how planets form by advancing understanding of their birthplaces and the circumstellar disks surrounding young stars. Scientists have ...

Study Determines the Original Orientations of Rocks Drilled on Mars

Mar. 4, 2024 — Geologists determined the original orientation of many of the Mars bedrock samples collected by the Perseverance rover. The findings can give scientists clues to the conditions in which the rocks ...

Ultraviolet Radiation from Massive Stars Shapes Planetary Systems

Mar. 1, 2024 — Up to a certain point, very luminous stars can have a positive effect on the formation of planets, but from that point on the radiation they emit can cause the material in protoplanetary discs to ...

Metal Scar Found on Cannibal Star

Feb. 26, 2024 — When a star like our Sun reaches the end of its life, it can ingest the surrounding planets and asteroids that were born with it. Now, researchers have found a unique signature of this process for ...