NASA Sees Monster Sunspot Growing Fast, Solar Storms Possible
• Prison PlanetA colossal sunspot on the surface of the sun is large enough to swallow six Earths whole, and could trigger solar flares this week, NASA scientists say.
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A colossal sunspot on the surface of the sun is large enough to swallow six Earths whole, and could trigger solar flares this week, NASA scientists say.
The Coronal Mass Ejection will shower earth with high speed solar particles in a few days.
NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory captured two giant explosions on the sun, one after the other during a 4-hour period, on Nov. 16, 2012.
Sun spots might appear small and innocent, but they hint at powerful forces at work on the surface of the Sun, forces that can wreak havoc on our electronic devices when they cause solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has recorded more spectacular activity in the Sun's atmosphere, with a solar flare whipping half a million miles into space, and sending a cloud of electrically charged particles in Earth's direction.
A mystifying trick of the sun, inappropriately interfering with particles on Earth, could be used as an early-warning system for solar flares, a new study says.
The R3 (Strong) Radio Blackout today at 12:49 EDT was accompanied by an earth-directed CME. Hampered by limited observations of the event, SWPC forecasters are now anticipating the passage of the [coronal mass ejection] around 1:00 a.m. EDT, Saturday
The sun is a tempestuous mistress - and her outbursts are becoming more and more violent as the weeks go on.
The brightness of the arc reveals the temperature and density structure of Venus's middle atmosphere, or "mesosphere," where the sunlight is refracted. According to some models, the mesosphere is key to the physics of super-rotation. By analyzing
Some stars, most often during their early life, exhibit an intense and energetic behavior, much greater than that of our own sun, despite a similar size, per say.
A powerful solar flare likely caused the spectacular failure of the Russian Federation's bold space mission Fobos-Grunt (in English, "Phobos-Soil"). That's the conclusion of a panel of space scientists working with an interministerial committee c
WASHINGTON (AP) -- One of the strongest solar storms in years engulfed Earth early Thursday, but scientists say the planet may have lucked out.
A strong geomagnetic storm is racing from the Sun toward Earth, and its expected arrival on Thursday could affect power grids, airplane routes and space-based satellite navigation systems, U.S. space weather experts said.
The sun ejected two huge solar flares Tuesday, and NASA says that we here on Earth may notice the effects of magnetic fields and ionized gases that it estimates will arrive around 1:25 a.m. ET Thursday.
Earth’s magnetic field is about to be shaken like a snow globe by the largest solar storm in five years. After hurtling through space for a day and a half, a massive cloud of charged particles is due to arrive early Thursday and could disrupt util
The Earth has a roughly 12 percent chance of experiencing an enormous megaflare erupting from the sun in the next decade. This event could potentially cause trillions of dollars’ worth of damage and take up to a decade to recover from.
On Sunday, a massive explosion on the sun known as a solar flare sent an ejection of some of the sun's plasma hurtling toward earth at the ungodly speed of 1,000 kilometers...per second!
Our planet is being bombarded by high-energy particles unleashed by the strongest solar storm since 2005, scientists say.
There was a time when one rarely had to worry about incoming doom born of outer space, but that time is not now. Between mysterious space ball, falling satellite after falling satellite after falling satellite, and the buildup to 2013’s solar maximum
It’s been a busy few days on the surface of the sun. A handful of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) last week sparked concerns of power grid and communications disruptions.
One of the biggest disasters we face would begin about 18 hours after the sun spit out a 10-billion-ton ball of plasma--something it has done before and is sure to do again.
Among the 320 solar physicists who have gathered for a conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico, word is buzzing about a claim that the 11-year solar-activity cycle, which some of them have spent their lives studying....
Sunspots may be going into hibernation, a phenomenon unseen since the 17th century that could lead to cooler global temperatures, scientists said Tuesday.
Some unusual solar readings, including fading sunspots and weakening magnetic activity near the poles, could be indications that our sun is preparing to be less active in the coming years.
The solar storm hit its peak at about 2:41 a.m. EDT (0641 GMT), but the actual flare extended over a three-hour period, said C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who runs a website called The Sun Today, in a vi
On Tuesday, the biggest solar flare in four years erupted from the sun, sending a mass of charged particles hurtling towards Earth. NASA announced that it was an M-2 (medium-sized) flare and an S1-class (minor) radiation storm.
We are forever being told that the sun is a vast gas ball of hydrogen and helium at the center of our solar system. But new evidence may help prove this isn’t the case after all, according to solar experts who say the sun has an iron core.
An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said.
Could a superstorm generated by the sun destroy civilization as we know it in 2012? No less than NASA thinks it's a distinct possibility. In a remarkable move the normally conservative US space agency has taken the extraordinary step of warning the
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a space telescope charged with watching the sun in unprecedented detail, revealed its first look at the sun to the world one year ago today.