Tag: Sun
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Watch Mercury move across the sun online — or in the sky, if you’re lucky and careful
A multiple-exposure image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows Mercury’s track across the sun’s disk in 2016. (NASA / GSFC / SDO Image / Genna Duberstein) The planets will be aligned on Monday for a rare astronomical event known as the transit of Mercury, and skywatching fans are sure to see it even if the…
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NASA selects missions to observe the sun and its impact on Earth
An eruption from the sun on April 16, 2012, was captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA NASA has selected two satellite missions for launch on the same rocket in 2022 to investigate the origins of the solar wind and explore the interaction between magnetic fields around Earth with those from the sun.…
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Parker Solar Probe sets records during first encounter with the sun
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated Nov. 8 with confirmation of Parker Solar Probe’s health after perihelion. Artist’s concept of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/Steve Gribben Less than three months after its fiery departure from Cape Canaveral, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe flew within 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) of the sun Monday for the $1.5 billion mission’s…
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Officials explain why they closed Sunspot Solar Observatory (and it wasn’t aliens)
The Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope is the centerpiece of the Sunspot Solar Observatory on Sacramento Peak in New Mexico. (National Science Foundation Photo) After days of fighting rumors about alien visitations, the managers of the Sunspot Solar Observatory in New Mexico say they’re reopening the facility — and have shed more light on the reason…
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Fastest, closest, hottest: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe blasts off to ‘touch the sun’
A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket sends NASA’s Parker Solar Probe spaceward from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. (NASA via YouTube) NASA today sent a super-shielded spacecraft known as the Parker Solar Probe on a mission that will take it closer to the sun than any other spacecraft has flown, with…
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Year In Review, 2017 (Part 1): Sun and Moon illuminate science returns
Like most years, 2017 saw numerous scientific advancements and discoveries throughout the solar system and beyond, most of which passed public attention with little fanfare for these discoveries that are helping to shape and build not only our knowledge of our solar system but also how to navigate the space around Earth in the safest…
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Northern lights provide a glowing auroral sendoff to Seattle’s summer weather
Northern lights glow in a time-exposure photo that includes star trails. (NWS Seattle Photo via Twitter) Seattle’s final fling with hot weather featured a celestial fireworks show on Wednesday night, in the form of an auroral display that benefited from clear skies as well as a strong geomagnetic storm. The northern lights were pumped up…
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Pioneering ESA mission aims to create artificial solar eclipses
Due to launch together in 2020, the two satellites making up Proba-3 will fly in precise formation to form an external coronagraph in space, one satellite eclipsing the sun to allow the second to study the otherwise invisible solar corona. Credit: ESA As skywatchers and scientists converge on a transcontinental band of totality for Monday’s…
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Here comes the sun’s corona: What eclipse chasers will see during totality in August
This image shows field lines of a solar coronal magnetic model based on measurements from the National Solar Observatory Integrated Synoptic Program, one solar rotation before the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse. (NSO / NSF Graphic) Skywatchers will see a rare celestial sight during the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse: the sun’s shimmering outer atmosphere,…
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NASA unveils renamed solar probe
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA’s first mission to go to the sun, the Parker Solar Probe, is named after Eugene Parker who first theorized that the sun constantly sends out a flow of particles and energy called the solar wind. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL A NASA spacecraft being readied for launch in 2018 will…