Sun News

July 4, 2024

Top Headlines

Machine Learning Could Aid Efforts to Answer Long-Standing Astrophysical Questions

July 3, 2024 — Physicists have developed a computer program incorporating machine learning that could help identify blobs of plasma in outer space known as plasmoids. In a novel twist, the program has been trained ...

New Evidence for How Heat Is Transported Below the Sun's Surface

June 25, 2024 — Solar physicists have revealed the interior structure of the sun's supergranules, a flow structure that transports heat from the sun's hidden interior to its surface. The researchers' analysis of the supergranules presents a challenge to the current ...

Surprising Phosphate Finding in NASA's OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample

June 26, 2024 — Early analysis of the asteroid Bennu sample returned by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed dust rich in carbon, nitrogen, and organic compounds, all of which are essential components for life as we know it. Dominated by clay minerals, ...

First of Its Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image

June 24, 2024 — For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to directly image has been captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens Nebula, the discovery lies in the northern ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:28pm EDT

Iron Meteorites Hint That Our Infant Solar System Was More Doughnut Than Dartboard

June 20, 2024 — Iron meteorites are remnants of the metallic cores of the earliest asteroids in our solar system. Iron meteorites contain refractory metals, such as ...

Watery Planets Orbiting Dead Stars May Be Good Candidates for Studying Life -- If They Can Survive Long Enough

June 13, 2024 — The small footprint and dim light of white dwarfs, remnants of stars that have burned through their fuel, may make excellent backdrops for studying ...

The Solar System May Have Passed Through Dense Interstellar Clouds 2 Million Years Ago, Altering Earth's Climate

June 10, 2024 — Astrophysicists calculate the likelihood that Earth was exposed to cold, harsh interstellar clouds, a phenomenon not previously considered in ...

'Weird' New Planet Retained Atmosphere Despite Nearby Star's Relentless Radiation

June 5, 2024 — A rare exoplanet that should have been stripped down to bare rock by its nearby host star's intense radiation somehow grew a puffy atmosphere instead ...

Mystery of 'Slow' Solar Wind Unveiled by Solar Orbiter Mission

May 28, 2024 — Scientists have come a step closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the 'slow' solar wind, using data collected during the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's first close journey to the ...

Intriguing Nearby World Sized Between Earth, Venus

May 23, 2024 — Astronomers have discovered a planet between the sizes of Earth and Venus only 40 light-years ...

Planet Hunters Unveil Massive Catalog of Strange Worlds

May 23, 2024 — While thousands of planets have been discovered around other stars, relatively little is known about them. A NASA catalog featuring 126 exotic, newly discovered worlds includes detailed measurements ...

Potentially Habitable 'Exo-Venus' With Earth-Like Temperature Discovered

May 23, 2024 — Astronomers have made the rare and tantalizing discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet 40 light-years away that may be just a little warmer than our own world. The potentially-habitable planet, named ...

The Origin of the Sun's Magnetic Field Could Lie Close to Its Surface

May 22, 2024 — Surprise findings suggest sunspots and solar flares could be generated by a magnetic field within the Sun's outermost layers. If confirmed, the findings could help scientists better predict space ...

Hubble Views the Dawn of a Sun-Like Star

May 15, 2024 — Looking like a glittering cosmic geode, a trio of dazzling stars blaze from the hollowed-out cavity of a reflection nebula in a new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The triple-star system is ...

Earlier Headlines

Squeezed by Neighbors, Planet Glows With Molten Lava

May 9, 2024 — Astrophysicists discovered that an exoplanet is covered with so many active volcanoes that seen from a distance it would take on a fiery, glowing-red ...

Astrophysicists Discover a Novel Method for Hunting the First Stars

May 9, 2024 — A recent study has discovered a novel method for detecting the first-generations stars, known as Population III (Pop III) stars, which have never been directly detected. These potential discoveries ...

Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

May 8, 2024 — Researchers may have detected atmospheric gases surrounding 55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth. This is the best evidence to date for the existence of any rocky planet ...

New Discoveries About Jupiter's Magnetosphere

May 6, 2024 — New discoveries about Jupiter could lead to a better understanding of Earth's own space environment and influence a long-running scientific debate about the solar system's largest ...

Probing the Effects of Interplanetary Space on Asteroid Ryugu

Apr. 29, 2024 — Samples reveal evidence of changes experienced by the surface of asteroid Ryugu, some probably due to micrometeoroid ...

Researchers Find Oldest Undisputed Evidence of Earth's Magnetic Field

Apr. 24, 2024 — A new study has recovered a 3.7-billion-year-old record of Earth's magnetic field, and found that it appears remarkably similar to the field surrounding Earth ...

Eruption of Mega-Magnetic Star Lights Up Nearby Galaxy

Apr. 24, 2024 — While ESA's satellite INTEGRAL was observing the sky, it spotted a burst of gamma-rays -- high-energy photons -- coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA's XMM-Newton ...

Astronomers Uncover Methane Emission on a Cold Brown Dwarf

Apr. 17, 2024 — Astronomers have discovered methane emission on a brown dwarf, an unexpected finding for such a cold and isolated world. The findings suggest that this brown dwarf might generate aurorae similar to ...

Most Massive Stellar Black Hole in Our Galaxy Found

Apr. 16, 2024 — Astronomers have identified the most massive stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. This black hole was spotted in data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission because ...

Stellar Winds of Three Sun-Like Stars Detected for the First Time

Apr. 12, 2024 — An international research team has for the first time directly detected stellar winds from three Sun-like stars by recording the X-ray emission from their astrospheres, and placed constraints on the ...

Exoplanets True to Size

Apr. 12, 2024 — A star's magnetic field must be considered in order to correctly determine the characteristics of exoplanets from observations by space telescopes such as Kepler, James Webb, or PLATO. ...

The Hidden Role of the Milky Way in Ancient Egyptian Mythology

Apr. 10, 2024 — Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut. The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have ...

CHEOPS Detects a 'Rainbow' on an Exoplanet

Apr. 5, 2024 — The CHEOPS space telescope is providing new information on the mysterious exoplanet WASP-76b. This ultra-hot giant is characterized by an asymmetry between the amount of light observed on its eastern ...

Neutron Stars Are Key to Understanding Elusive Dark Matter

Apr. 5, 2024 — Scientists may be one step closer to unlocking one of the great mysteries of the universe after calculating that neutron stars might hold a key to helping us understand elusive dark ...

Unlocking Supernova Stardust Secrets

Mar. 28, 2024 — New research has discovered a rare dust particle trapped in an ancient extra-terrestrial meteorite that was formed by a star other than our ...

Long-Period Oscillations Control the Sun's Differential Rotation

Mar. 27, 2024 — The interior of the Sun does not rotate at the same rate at all latitudes. The physical origin of this differential rotation is not fully understood. It turns out, long-period solar oscillations ...

Distant 'Space Snowman' Unlocks Mystery of How Some Dormant Deep Space Objects Become 'Ice Bombs'

Mar. 27, 2024 — Researchers found that the double-lobed object, which is officially named Kuiper Belt Object 486958 Arrokoth and resembles a snowman, may have ancient ices stored deep within it from when the object ...

Turbulence Within Solar Transients Imaged

Mar. 27, 2024 — Scientists captured images showing the development of turbulence as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) interacted with the ambient solar wind in the circumsolar ...

Tiniest 'Starquake' Ever Detected

Mar. 26, 2024 — An orange dwarf star has yielded the tiniest 'starquakes' ever recorded, measured by an international team of ...

James Webb Space Telescope Captures the End of Planet Formation

Mar. 22, 2024 — How much time do planets have to form from a swirling disk of gas and dust around a star? A new study gives scientists a better idea of how our own solar system came to ...