Armando is known primarily as an astronomy educator, after 30+ years of extensive public outreach and 10 years teaching in colleges. As one of only a handful of science communicators in Puerto Rico during Comet Halley's last visit, he assumed a pioneering role starting in 1985 when science was just beginning to enter the collective mindset. Over the years, his work as a teacher, speaker and writer, inspired people to pursue interests in science and brought enduring change to Puerto Rican cult...| earthsky.org
What are the different types, or classes, of flares?| solar-center.stanford.edu
C. Alex Young is a solar astrophysicist studying the Sun and space weather. Alex is passionate about sharing science with diverse audiences. This led him to start The Sun Today with his designer wife, Linda. First through Facebook and Twitter then adding an extensive website thesuntoday.org, the two work together to engage the public about the Sun and its role in our solar system. Alex led national engagement efforts for the 2017 total solar eclipse. He is the Associate Director for Science i...| earthsky.org
The sun has passed from one of its 11-year activity cycles into another. Scientists predict the new cycle will be about as calm as the previous one.| EarthSky | Updates on your cosmos and world
Artist’s concept of activity on the sun traveling across space, to interact with Earth’s magnetic field. Not to scale. The sun’s activity can cause a geomagnetic storm, which aren’t harmful to humans, but which can harm earthly technologies. Image via Wikimedia Commons.What happens during a geomagnetic storm?| EarthSky
Coronal mass ejection on February 27, 2000. A disk blocks out the light of the sun. The white circle indicates the sun’s surface. Learn more about coronal mass ejections here. Image via SOHO.What are coronal mass ejections?| EarthSky
View full size. | World map of time zones. UTC (0) is the green vertical stripe just to the left of center. Image via TimeZonesBoy/ CIA/ Wikimedia.Time zones| EarthSky
Kelly Kizer Whitt - EarthSky’s nature and travel vlogger on YouTube - writes and edits some of the most fascinating stories at EarthSky.org. She's been writing about science, with a focus on astronomy, for decades. She began her career at Astronomy Magazine and made regular contributions to other outlets, including AstronomyToday and the Sierra Club. She has nine published books, including a children's picture book, Solar System Forecast, and a young adult dystopian novel, A Different Sky.| earthsky.org
Our Editor-in-Chief Deborah Byrd works to keep all the astronomy balls in the air between EarthSky's website, YouTube page and social media platforms. She's the primary editor of our popular daily newsletter and a frequent host of EarthSky livestreams. Deborah created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. She has won a ...| earthsky.org
On New Year’s Eve 2023, the sun blasted a huge X flare, the biggest of solar cycle 25 so far. It came from sunspot region AR3536 and measured X5 on the solar flare intensity scale. The eruption produced a wave that rippled across the sun’s face in all directions. It produced a coronal mass ejection, or CME, a great clump of superheated matter that left the sun and traveled outward into our solar system. | EarthSky
Coronal holes appear as dark areas in the solar corona in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft x-ray solar images. They appear dark because they are cooler, less dense regions than the surrounding plasma and are regions of open, unipolar magnetic fields. This open, magnetic field line structure allows the solar wind to escape more readily into space, resulting in streams of relatively fast solar wind and is often referred to as a high speed stream in the context of analysis of structures in int...| www.swpc.noaa.gov
The solar wind continuously flows outward from the Sun and consists mainly of protons and electrons in a state known as a plasma. Solar magnetic field is embedded in the plasma and flows outward with the solar wind. | www.swpc.noaa.gov
Sun news for November 12-13, 2024. NOAA is forecasting active (kp=4) geomagnetic conditions for tonight and tomorrow, with the possibility of a G1 storm (Kp=5). This is due to fast solar wind from a coronal hole on the Earth-facing solar disk. Image via NOAASun news November 13: Auroras possible tonight and tomorrow| EarthSky
Solar radiation storms occur when a large-scale magnetic eruption, often causing a coronal mass ejection and associated solar flare, accelerates charged particles in the solar atmosphere to very high velocities. The most important particles are protons which can get accelerated to large fractions of the speed of light. At these velocities, the protons can traverse the 150 million km from sun to Earth in just 10’s of minutes or less. When they reach Earth, the fast moving protons penetrate t...| www.swpc.noaa.gov
Solar flares are large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun lasting from minutes to hours. The sudden outburst of electromagnetic energy travels at the speed of light, therefore any effect upon the sunlit side of Earth’s exposed outer atmosphere occurs at the same time the event is observed. The increased level of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation results in ionization in the lower layers of the ionosphere on the sunlit side of Earth. Under normal conditions, high...| www.swpc.noaa.gov
The NOAA Space Weather Scales were introduced as a way to communicate to the general public the current and future space weather conditions and their possible effects on people and systems. Many of the SWPC products describe the space environment, but few have described the effects that can be experienced as the result of environmental disturbances. These scales are useful to users of our products and those who are interested in space weather effects. The scales describe the environmental dis...| www.swpc.noaa.gov
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Lana Froemming of Marengo, Wisconsin, captured this image on September 18, 2023, not long before the September equinox. She wrote: “I saw the magic in the sky. I watched the amazing light show from about 8:45 p.m. until about 11:30 p.m. … ” Thank you, Lana! The weeks around the fall and spring equinoxes are recognized by scientists as aurora season. We have more auroras at that time of year than any other time. Keep reading to find out why.When is a...| EarthSky