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
It’s well known that severe space weather events – which are quite rare – can have a negative impact on our use of Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled devices. But our research, published in Geophysical…
Ten Earths could be laid across the diameter of the gigantic sunspot in AR2191 during its previous rotation – captured on October 23, 2014.
NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory
The largest sunspot seen in 24 years is rotating back to face the Earth, and it looks to have grown even bigger. Last month, the solar active region known as AR12192 (also known as AR2192 to some of its…
During the early hours of this morning (3:42am AEST) our sun released a strong solar flare. It follows right on the heels of a more moderate flare that was released from the same region of the sun on Tuesday…
Like Icarus, passengers on aircraft during solar flares can cop the effects of flying close to the sun.
HK.Colin/Flickr
Space weather impacts many modern-day technologies. But one of the most concerning – and least reported – space weather effects is the increased radiation exposure to passengers on commercial long-distance…
Water ice is the most abundant solid material in the universe. Much of it was created as the byproduct of star formation, but not all. John Bradley of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and his team…
You may have read the sun’s magnetic field is heading for a change in field polarity - meaning it will flip upside down - and could have ripple effects throughout the entire solar system. So what does…
Lucky it’s pointing the wrong way this time.
Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center
In 1859, from August 28 to September 2, we were given an important lesson about how vulnerable we are to the Sun’s power. The Carrington Event, named for the amateur astronomer who recorded it, Richard…
A giant flare blasts solar wind and plasma towards Earth.
NASA
The biggest space storm in five years is hurtling towards Earth at more than 2000 km per second. Two bursts of solar wind and plasma - known as coronal mass ejections (CME) - are expected to hit Earth…