Solar Astronomy

The Smallest Window on the Sun

By Mark Thompson - June 12, 2026

Every so often, the Sun hurls billions of tonnes of charged particles toward Earth in what are called coronal mass ejections and if a big one hits at the wrong moment, the consequences for satellites, power grids, and communications systems could be catastrophic. Our best defence is to predict them before they happen, and that means watching the Sun's magnetic fields constantly and precisely. Now, a component smaller than a shirt button could transform how we do exactly that.

How Heavy Can a Neutron Star Get?

By Andy Tomaswick - June 01, 2026

The physics of neutron stars are almost too fantastic to believe. Something the weight of two Suns compacted to a sphere the size of a city. Each teaspoon of its material would weigh billions of tons. If you’ve done any reading on the topic, you’ve heard these facts before. But despite the intense interest these extreme objects hold, we are still actively learning lots about them. One of the most pertinent outstanding questions is where is the line between becoming a neutron star and becoming a black hole when a star dies. A new paper by researchers at the HUN-REN Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Hungary describes what they believe to be a definitive answer to that question - between 2.2 and 2.3 solar masses.

The Sun is Changing and We Don’t Know Why

By Mark Thompson - May 29, 2026

The Sun has a heartbeat. Every eleven years it swells with magnetic fury, hurling solar flares and charged particles into space, sparking auroral displays and threatening power grids, all before quietening down again. We've tracked this rhythm for centuries. But now, scientists listening to sound waves deep inside our local star have found something deeply unexpected, that heartbeat is changing. And nobody yet knows what it means.

When the Sun Tries to Explode and Fails

By Mark Thompson - May 26, 2026

Scientists have captured one of the most detailed observations ever of a failed solar eruption, a powerful blast from the Sun that built into what should have been a billion tonne plasma ejection, then stalled and collapsed back to the surface. Using data from five spacecraft simultaneously, the team identified a double magnetic process that strangled the eruption from both above and below.

A New Study on Coronal Holes Improves Space Weather Forecasting

By Matthew Williams - May 20, 2026

New Mexico State University (NMSU) astronomy graduate student Khagendra Katuwal studied 70 coronal holes on the sun to better understand the connection between solar activity and space weather. His paper was recently published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Ringing the GONG: New Details About the Sun's Far-side Activities

By Carolyn Collins Petersen - May 07, 2026

For years, when something happened on the far side of the Sun, we didn't know much, if anything about it. Sunspots could form there, flares could lash out and the corona could send masses of material out to space. However, we didn't know about any of this until those active regions rotated around to our view. In the late 1900s, scientists came up with a technique called helioseismology to analyze sound waves created by such activity as they echoed through the Sun.

ESA’s Proba 3 is Unlocking Secrets of the Solar Wind

By David Dickinson - April 29, 2026

It has been a dream of astronomers and solar scientists for ages. A new mission gives solar researchers a powerful new tool in their arsenal: on-demand, total solar eclipses. Launched in 2024, The European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission has proven the feasibility of a free-flying, space-based coronagraph. Now, first science results from the mission are giving us a view of the origin of space weather. The results were recently published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Sun's Impossible Floating Mountains

By Mark Thompson - April 28, 2026

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have produced the most detailed simulations ever of solar prominences. These vast clouds of cooler plasma suspended in the Sun's scorching outer atmosphere have often perplexed solar astronomers. Their research reveals that two separate processes work together to keep these structures alive, and could one day help us predict the violent eruptions that drive dangerous space weather here on Earth.

Behold, the Solar System in All its X-ray Glory

By Matthew Williams - April 21, 2026

Using the eROSITA space telescope, MPE researchers have successfully isolated the X-ray glow from our Solar System, revealing its impact on the soft X-ray sky. The findings, published in Science, underscore the importance of considering Solar System processes when analyzing X-ray data and highlight eROSITA’s role in advancing not only astrophysics but also heliophysics.

The Sharpest Eyes on the Sun.

By Mark Thompson - April 15, 2026

The Sun is the most studied star in the universe, yet some of its most violent behaviour remains stubbornly out of reach. Solar flares, explosive eruptions that can disrupt satellites, knock out power grids and bathe astronauts in radiation release enormous bursts of X-rays that carry vital clues about what drives them. Now, a team of Japanese engineers has built the sharpest X-ray telescope ever to fly on a solar mission, and the technology it has pioneered could soon fit inside a satellite the size of a shoebox.

How the Solar Wind Really Works

By Mark Thompson - March 29, 2026

The Sun doesn't just pump out light and heat, it blasts a continuous stream of charged particles across the Solar System, and that solar wind is far more complex than it looks. Hidden within it are waves that act as invisible middlemen, constantly shuffling energy between particles as the wind expands outward. Now, thanks to the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter spacecraft, we have our clearest picture yet of how those waves behave close to the Sun itself.

The Sun’s Long-Lived Active Regions Are Massive Flare Factories—But We Don’t Know Why

By Andy Tomaswick - March 20, 2026

Space weather is a fascinating subject, but one we still have a lot to learn about. One of the main components of it is the active regions (ARs) of the Sun. These huge concentrations of magnetic fields show up throughout the Sun’s photosphere and are the primary source of solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). They can be simple pairings of magnetic flux or huge, magnetically complex tangles that spend weeks creating massive solar storms before dissipating. But tracking the longest lived of these ARs has been a headache for solar physicists, and a recent paper by Emily Mason and Kara Kniezewski, published in The Astrophysical Journal, both dives into this tracking problem and uncovers some interesting features of the Sun’s most persistent ARs.

Eclipse Study Tracks Turbulence Through the Solar Corona

By David Dickinson - March 19, 2026

It was an amazing sight witnessed by many during the April 2024 total solar eclipse. For a few precious moments, it seemed like a celestial dimmer switch was thrown, as the Moon eclipsed the Sun. It was one of the very few times you could actually see prominences and the pearly white corona of the Sun in person, without the aid of special equipment. Now, a recent study out of the University of Hawai’i has linked high resolution images taken during totality with observations from missions orbiting the Sun, in an effort to chronicle the evolution of space weather.

The Sun's Great Escape

By Mark Thompson - March 16, 2026

Our Sun didn't always call this quiet corner of the Milky Way home. New research using data from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite has uncovered evidence that the Sun fled the chaotic heart of our Galaxy four to six billion years ago and it didn't go alone. A vast migration of stars almost identical to our own swept outward together, a great exodus that may have made life on Earth possible. The story of how astronomers pieced this together is as remarkable as the discovery itself.

NASA's DART Mission Also Changed Didymos' Orbit Around Sun

By Matthew Williams - March 14, 2026

The spacecraft changed the binary system’s orbit, confirming that a kinetic impactor can be an effective planetary defense technique for deflecting a near-Earth object.

ESA's Mars orbiters watch solar superstorm hit the Red Planet

By Matthew Williams - March 12, 2026

What happens when a solar superstorm hits Mars? Thanks to the European Space Agency’s Mars orbiters, we now know: glitching spacecraft and a supercharged upper atmosphere.

The Sun That Never Flips

By Mark Thompson - March 12, 2026

For 45 years, astronomers believed that stars like our Sun would eventually flip their rotation pattern as they aged with the poles speeding up and the equator slowing down. It was one of those theoretical predictions that seemed rock solid, written into textbooks and built into stellar models. Now, researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have run the most powerful simulations of stellar interiors ever attempted, and the theory has collapsed. Stars like the Sun, it turns out, seem to keep the same rotation pattern for their entire lives.

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 2: Why Comets Are Like Cats

By Paul Sutter - March 11, 2026

Once you start listing the properties of 3I/ATLAS, it becomes clear pretty quickly that this thing is distinctly different from any other comet we've ever seen. Here's just a small taste.

Reading the Sun's Mind Weeks Before It Erupts

By Mark Thompson - March 11, 2026

When a powerful solar storm erupts, the warning system we currently rely on gives us just hours to respond, barely enough time to protect the satellites, power grids, and communication networks that modern life depends on. But a new tool developed by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute and the National Science Foundation could change that entirely, pushing advance warnings of dangerous space weather from hours to weeks. The secret lies not at the Sun's surface, but deep in its hidden interior and unlocking it has required a remarkable fusion of physics and artificial intelligence.

The Sun Has a Heartbeat

By Mark Thompson - March 10, 2026

For forty years, a network of telescopes has been listening to the Sun hum and scientists have finally decoded what those sounds reveal about our star's hidden interior. A new study from the University of Birmingham and Yale University has found that the Sun's internal structure quietly shifts between solar cycles, leaving measurable fingerprints deep beneath its surface. It's a discovery that could transform how we forecast space weather and its impact here on Earth.

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