For indigenous peoples, winter solstice has been a time to honor their ancient sun deity. Their rituals reveal a deep understanding of the natural world.
Voyager 2 launched in 1977 and visited all four gas giants in our Solar System. It’s now almost 18 billion kilometres from Earth and has finally joined its twin in interstellar space.
When dozens of US mines planted in waters off the Vietnam coast detonated almost simultaneously in 1972, all eyes turned to the Sun for an explanation.
Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland and Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland
There are lots of places where it’s much, much hotter than the Sun. And the amazing thing is that this heat also makes new atoms - tiny particles that have made their way long ago from stars to us.
Whenever summer rolls around, it’s easy to forget the basics of sunscreen. How long should I wait after applying it to go in the sun, and how long can I stay in the sun with it on?
A solar day is a measure of how long it takes the Earth to rotate from one noon to the next, and today’s summer solstice also happens to be the longest solar day of the year.
At a time in the sun’s cycle when space weather experts expect less solar activity, our star is going bonkers with solar flares and coronal mass ejections. What effects will Earth feel?
While we on Earth are familiar with our own star, the Sun, the European Space Agency’s PLATO mission will explore solar systems similar to ours as well as those that are more exotic.
For centuries, scientists have known when and where eclipses will be visible. They pack their bags, head for the line of totality and hope for the best – which doesn’t always happen.