NASA and NOAA said this week that the sun has officially reached Solar Maximum, the peak of its 11-year cycle. NASA heliophysicist C. Alex Young and EarthSky’s founder Deborah Byrd talked about it on this week’s Friday livestream, our Sun News of the Week. Watch in the player above, or on YouTube.| EarthSky
This image shows a long filament of solar material, erupting into space. It happened on August 31, 2012. The accompanying coronal mass ejection (CME) traveled at over 900 miles per second (1,500 km/sec), rippling out into the solar system. Note: Earth to scale, but Earth is not this close to the sun. Image via NASA/ SDO spacecraft. A much-larger CME in the year 1859 caused the Carrington Event, which manifested as perplexing disruptions in the technologies then in use, such as the telegraph...| EarthSky
Scientists say it is now possible to predict the precise speed a coronal mass ejection (shown left in an artist’s impression) is traveling at and when it will smash into Earth (bottom right moving in our direction). And that’s even before it has fully erupted from the sun (top right). The new insights will help create more accurate space storm alerts for Earth. Image via NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/ JHelioviewer/ Royal Astronomical Society (CC BY 4.0).| EarthSky
Sun news June 30, 2024: Parker Solar Probe nearly touches sun today| EarthSky
Sun news February 29, 2024: Sun-stuff coming our way| EarthSky
