Composite image of moments before, during and after totality.
NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
An astronomer explains how. why and when eclipses happen, what scientists can learn from them, and what they would look like if you were standing on the Moon.
The Sun is currently middle-aged, having celebrated its 4,568,000,000th birthday at some point in the last million years.
Flickr/ChopWood CarryWater
In five or seven billion years time, the Sun’s life will come to an end. And it will be really spectacular - if you’re watching from far enough away.
Earth, shot from space, as it absorbs and reflects rays of light coming from the Sun - the same white-looking rays that give our sky its colour.
NASA
Some people think the sky is blue because of sunlight reflected off the ocean and back into the sky. But that’s not the real reason.
Magnificent coronal mass ejection at the sun in 2012.
NASA
The Parker probe will go closer to the sun than any other spacecraft has dared go before – literally touching it.
Don’t skimp on the SPF.
Sabphoto via Shutterstock.com
Energy from the sun’s rays can cause skin damage and cancers. Sunscreens can absorb or reflect the dangerous UV light. Here’s how it works.
Sometimes only a water fountain will do.
Dan Peled/AAP
Schools need to have a formal policy in place for how to deal with heatwaves effectively and keep children cool and well.
A gamma ray burst close to Earth could be devastating.
ESO/A. Roquette
If we survive for another 7.59 billion years, our planet will spiral into the outer layers of the dying sun and melt away forever.
Enjoy the full moon’s glow.
mstollenwerk
Full moons are good reason to look up – and the one on Nov. 14 is no exception. But here’s why you likely won’t see something shockingly different from other full moons you’ve observed over the years.
Truth is out there.
macro-vectors
Sonification is a technique for converting data into sound. It could transform the study of distant worlds.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Our growing dependency on satellites for all forms of communication has made the problem of space weather even more acute.
An artist’s illustration of Kappa Ceti whose stellar winds are 50 times stronger than our sun’s. Any Earth-like planet would need a magnetic field to protect its atmosphere if it was to stand a chance of hosting life.
M. Weiss/CfA
In the search for life on other planets in the universe we need to find the right kind of star, and it needs to have the right kind of space weather.
Artist’s impression: Looking back 12.9-billion km towards the sun and the inner solar system from Sedna, one of the recently discovered minor planets in the Kuiper belt.
NASA, ESA and Adolf Schaller
The search for new objects, including new planets, in our solar system has turned up some interesting finds. There have been a few failures over the years too.
The UV Index was created last century largely for North American and European conditions, which rarely reach the ‘extreme’ range.
Andy Cross/Flickr
Alongside the day’s high and low, weather reports generally contain a UV alert for a particular time. But what does it actually mean – and what should you do about it?
Hurricane Arthur photographed by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst.
ESA/NASA
Astronauts living on the ISS get to experience the wonders of the universe’s natural phenomena like no one else.
Tempestuous times on the solar surface.
NASA
It’s the windiest place in the entire solar system – and these storms can be felt here on Earth.
A gigantic sunspot almost 130,000 km across captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory on October 23, 2014.
NASA/SDO
The recent claim that we might enter a mini ice age in 15 years is not only bad science, but it represents a failure of communication by both scientists and journalists.
Intensive sun exposure for marathon runners in the middle of the day could lead to sunburn, skin cancer and cataracts.
Rogan Ward/Reuters
Runners have a greater risk of developing skin cancer because they are more likely have sun damage on their skin as a result of chronic sun exposure.
Employers have a duty to keep their employees safe from the sun.
Reuters/Mike Blake
A real-time hand-held device can help employers measure the impact of the sun on workers.
Keytruda® targets a protein on the surface of immune cells that stopped them from attacking the melanoma cells.
Australis Photography/Shutterstock
Keytruda® is the latest drug to be registered in Australia for the treatment of widespread melanoma. But we must wait to see if it meets the cost-effectiveness targets for PBS subsidisation.
Research suggests that sunlight may have benefits that we have not yet discovered.
Joseph D'Mello/Flickr
Summer sunshine makes most of us feel better, but there may be more to the benefits than just feeling good.