The Solar Orbiter just completed its commissioning phase while en route to the Sun. It has already provided valuable looks at solar campfires and Venus’s magnetic fields, and it promises much more.
the Sun
Posted inFeatures
The Young Earth Under the Cool Sun
How did our planet avoid being frozen solid during the early days of our solar system?
Posted inNews
Accurate Simulation of Sun’s Rotation Might Illuminate Solar Cycle
Scientists have known for 400 years about a particularity in the way the Sun rotates. It took the world’s most powerful supercomputer to accurately simulate it.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Wind: Discoveries and Impacts of a Venerable Spacecraft
Wind has been one of the most robust, diverse, long-lasting, and impactful heliophysics missions ever to have been carried out.
Posted inEditors' Vox
New Book Collection Presents Latest in Heliophysics Research
A new set of five books presents the latest science on the Sun and the solar wind, magnetospheres in the solar system, Earth’s ionosphere, Earth’s upper atmosphere, and the effects of space weather.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Observing the Sun via Soil Moisture Measurements
Solar radio bursts are background noise for satellite-based radio observations that monitor soil moisture, so, with appropriate processing, those observations can provide data on radio bursts.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
The Cosmic Timeline of Heliophysics
Thom Moore began his career after the start of the space age. This is the story of how he converted his interests in evolution, philosophy, and psychology and writing into the study of heliophysics.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Accurate Are Our Measurements of the Sun’s Energy?
As instruments collecting solar data degrade, researchers must correct for errors. A new study compares several methods to correct solar spectral irradiance measurements.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Using Earth’s Atmosphere as a Solar Flare Monitor
Measurements of very-low frequency radio signal phase and amplitude can detect upper atmosphere changes caused by solar flares, enabling us to monitor flare occurrence and intensity.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Hearing the Sun Tock
The appearance of sunspots—their number, duration, and location—suggests that the dynamics of the Sun’s outer layer is synchronized with an internal clock.