Solar Flare News

September 29, 2023

Top Headlines

Electrons from Earth May Be Forming Water on the Moon

Sep. 14, 2023 — Planetary scientists have discovered that high energy electrons in Earth's plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes on the Moon's surface and, importantly, the electrons may have aided the formation of water on the lunar ...

New Insights Into Neutrino Interactions

Sep. 11, 2023 — Elusive fundamental particles called neutrinos are predicted to interact unexpectedly with photons under extreme ...

Neptune's Disappearing Clouds Linked to the Solar Cycle

Aug. 29, 2023 — Astronomers have uncovered a link between Neptune's shifting cloud abundance and the 11-year solar cycle, in which the waxing and waning of the Sun's entangled magnetic fields drives solar ...

After Seventeen Years, a Spacecraft Makes Its First Visit Home

Aug. 10, 2023 — On Aug. 12, 2023, NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft will pass between the Sun and Earth, marking the first Earth flyby of the nearly 17-year-old mission. The visit home brings a special chance for the spacecraft to collaborate with NASA missions near Earth ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:05am EDT

Sun 'Umbrella' Tethered to Asteroid Might Help Mitigate Climate Change

July 31, 2023 — Earth is rapidly warming and scientists are developing a variety of approaches to reduce the effects of climate change. An astronomer has proposed a novel approach -- a solar shield to reduce the ...

Hubble Sees Evaporating Planet Getting the Hiccups

July 27, 2023 — A young planet whirling around a petulant red dwarf star is changing in unpredictable ways orbit-by-orbit. It is so close to its parent star that it experiences a consistent, torrential blast of ...

Giant Swirling Waves at Edge of Jupiter's Magnetosphere

July 17, 2023 — A team has found that NASA's Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter frequently encounters giant swirling waves at the boundary between the solar wind and Jupiter's magnetosphere. The waves are an important ...

Molecular Filament Shielded Young Solar System from Supernova

June 22, 2023 — Isotope ratios found in meteorites suggest that a supernova exploded nearby while the Sun and Solar System were still forming. But the blast wave from a supernova that close could have potentially ...

Scientists Report 'Benchmarks' for Extreme Space Weather

June 15, 2023 — Extreme space weather threatens vital satellites orbiting the Earth, including the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) which pass through the heart of the outer radiation belt. New research ...

Sun's Coldest Region Stores Secret to Heating Million-Degree Corona

June 14, 2023 — Researchers have unveiled the discovery of intense wave energy from a relatively cool, dark and strongly magnetized plasma region on the Sun, capable of traversing the solar atmosphere and ...

Flaring Star Could Be Down to Young Planet's Disc Inferno

June 12, 2023 — New simulations offer new explanation for star's 85-year flare. In this scenario, a young giant planet is burning up very close to its star, suggesting solar systems may have hosted many of such ...

New Study Identifies Mechanism Driving the Sun's Fast Wind

June 7, 2023 — Researchers used data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe to explain how the solar wind is capable of surpassing speeds of 1 million miles per hour. They discovered that the energy released from the ...

Supercomputer Simulations Provide a Better Picture of the Sun's Magnetic Field

June 1, 2023 — The new findings challenge the conventional understanding of solar dynamics and could improve predictions of solar weather in the ...

Astronomers Observe the First Radiation Belt Seen Outside of Our Solar System

May 15, 2023 — Astronomers have described the first radiation belt observed outside our solar system, using a coordinated array of 39 radio dishes from Hawaii to ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

How 1,000 Undergraduates Helped Solve an Enduring Mystery About the Sun

May 9, 2023 — For three years at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of students spent an estimated 56,000 hours analyzing the behavior of hundreds of solar flares. Their results could help ...

Superflare With Massive, High-Velocity Prominence Eruption

Apr. 27, 2023 — A team of Japanese astronomers used simultaneous ground-based and space-based observations to capture a more complete picture of a superflare on a star. The observed flare started with a very ...

Do Earth-Like Exoplanets Have Magnetic Fields? Far-Off Radio Signal Is Promising Sign

Apr. 4, 2023 — Earth's magnetic field does more than keep everyone's compass needles pointed in the same direction. It also helps preserve Earth's sliver of life-sustaining atmosphere by deflecting ...

The Planet That Could End Life on Earth

Mar. 7, 2023 — A terrestrial planet hovering between Mars and Jupiter would be able to push Earth out of the solar system and wipe out life on this planet, according to a recent ...

Researchers Discover Mysterious Source of 'Heartbeat-Like' Radio Bursts in a Solar Fare

Feb. 21, 2023 — A solar radio burst with a signal pattern, akin to that of a heartbeat, has been pinpointed in the Sun's atmosphere, according to a new study. An international team of researchers has reported ...

Hubble Captures the Start of a New Spoke Season at Saturn

Feb. 9, 2023 — Since their discovery by NASA's Voyager mission in the 1980s, temporary 'spoke' features across Saturn's rings have fascinated scientists, yet eluded explanation. They have been ...

Solar System Formed from 'Poorly Mixed Cake Batter,' Isotope Research Shows

Jan. 26, 2023 — Earth's potassium arrived by meteoritic delivery service finds new research led by Earth and planetary scientists. Their work shows that some primitive meteorites contain a different mix of ...

First Ultraviolet Imaging of Sun's Middle Corona

Dec. 12, 2022 — Researchers have discovered web-like plasma structures in the Sun's middle corona. The researchers describe their innovative new observation method, imaging the middled corona in ultraviolet ...

Researchers Say Space Atomic Clocks Could Help Uncover the Nature of Dark Matter

Dec. 5, 2022 — Studying an atomic clock on-board a spacecraft inside the orbit of Mercury and very near to the Sun could be the trick to uncovering the nature of dark ...

NASA's MAVEN Observes Martian Light Show Caused by Major Solar Storm

Nov. 10, 2022 — For the first time in its eight years orbiting Mars, NASA's MAVEN mission witnessed two different types of ultraviolet aurorae simultaneously, the result of solar storms that began on Aug. ...

Tree Rings Offer Insight Into Devastating Radiation Storms

Oct. 25, 2022 — A new study has shed new light on a mysterious, unpredictable and potentially devastating kind of astrophysical ...

Where Do High-Energy Particles That Endanger Satellites, Astronauts and Airplanes Come From?

Sep. 13, 2022 — Astrophysicists show how and when specific particles form and offers clues to questions that have troubled scientists since the ...

MAVEN and EMM Make First Observations of Patchy Proton Aurora at Mars

Aug. 31, 2022 — NASA's MAVEN and the United Arab Emirates' EMM missions have released joint observations of dynamic proton aurora events at Mars. By combining the observations, scientists determined that ...

NASA Schedules PUNCH Mission to Launch in 2025

Aug. 23, 2022 — More than 60 engineers and scientists are gathering at Southwest Research Institute Aug. 23-24 to kick off the launch vehicle collaboration for NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and ...

Hubble Sees Red Supergiant Star Betelgeuse Slowly Recovering After Blowing Its Top

Aug. 11, 2022 — The star Betelgeuse appears as a brilliant, ruby-red, twinkling spot of light in the upper right shoulder of the winter constellation Orion the Hunter. But when viewed close up, astronomers know it ...

Particle Accelerator Region Revealed Inside a Solar Flare

June 8, 2022 — A new study offers direct evidence showing where near-light speed particle acceleration occurs inside the largest explosion known in the solar system, the solar ...

Physicists Explain How Type of Aurora on Mars Is Formed

May 18, 2022 — Researchers have learned how a type of aurora on Mars is formed. The physicists report discrete aurora form through the interaction of the solar wind and the crust at Mars' southern ...

A Roadmap for Deepening Understanding of a Puzzling Universal Process

Apr. 22, 2022 — Scientists have detailed a roadmap for untangling a key aspect of magnetic recognition that could deepen insight into the workings of the ...

Mercury Has Magnetic Storms

Mar. 31, 2022 — An international team of scientists has proved that Mercury, our solar system's smallest planet, has geomagnetic storms similar to those on Earth. Their finding, a first, answers the question of ...

Scientists Solve Solar Secret

Mar. 24, 2022 — The further we move away from a heat source, the cooler the air gets. Bizarrely, the same can't be said for the surface of the Sun, but scientists may have just explained a key part of ...

Tuesday, May 9, 2023