Our Sun

Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission.

Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Parker Solar Probe will make its journey all the way to the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona — closer to the Sun than any spacecraft in history.

The mission will study the Sun closer than any human-made object ever has.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will swoop through the Sun’s atmosphere 24 times. The spacecraft will carry more than scientific instruments on this historic journey — it will also hold more than 1.1 million names submitted by the public to go to the Sun.

Two upcoming missions will soon take us closer to the Sun than we’ve ever been before, providing our best chance yet at uncovering the complexities of solar activity.

Scientists working with NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft have uncovered a new type of magnetic event in our near-Earth environment.

Glowing in mostly purple and green colors, a new celestial phenomenon is sparking the interest of scientists, photographers and astronauts.

Whether you're doing it for the nerd cred or the pie, this week on #10Things, we've got all the ways you can celebrate #PiDay with NASA.

NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names online to be placed on a microchip aboard NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission launching in summer 2018.

Inspiring views of our solar system and beyond.

SDO’s eclipse season is a three-week period that comes twice a year near the equinoxes during which Earth blocks SDO’s view of the Sun for a short while each day.

Ten things to know about the January 2018 total lunar eclipse, including where to see it, why it turns the Moon into a deep red color, and more.

The Parker Solar Probe is lowered into the 40-foot-tall thermal vacuum chamber. The chamber simulates the harsh conditions of space.

Like the waistband of a couch potato in midlife, the orbits of planets in our solar system are expanding. It happens because the Sun’s gravitational grip gradually weakens as our star ages and loses mass.

10 vision-stretching images for your computer desktop or phone wallpaper.

The Moon became a key focus point for NASA in 2017, whether it was blocking out the Sun during one of the most-viewed events in U.S. history, or reinvigorating the agency’s human space exploration plans.

In honor of NASA's first-ever mission to the heart of the solar system, this week's 10 Things is delving into the life and times of this powerful yellow dwarf star.

The transit of Venus across our Sun for about 7 hours (begining 6:09 PM Eastern US on June 5th) is an astronomical event that will not occur again until 2117.

NASA's Genesis mission is officially open for business today, as it extends its special collector arrays to catch atoms from the solar wind.

How would our Sun behave differently if it had a closely orbiting twin?

NASA's Genesis spacecraft will begin its primary science mission of collecting particles from the solar wind when it begins to orbit a point between the Sun and Earth on Friday, Nov. 16.

For the second time in its 11-year lifetime, ESA's Ulysses spacecraft is about to fly over the Sun's north pole.

Soil collected on the moon by Purdue University alumnus Eugene Cernan nearly 30 years ago has helped researchers at his alma mater and the University of California uncover new details about the workings of the sun.

Order is returning to the solar wind as the Sun begins to shake off the chaos that has characterised its behaviour during the recent peak in its 11-year activity cycle.

NASA's Genesis spacecraft launched flawlessly atop a Delta 7326 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Station at 12:13:40 p.m. EDT (9:13:40 a.m. PDT) today.

Once every 11 years, the sun's magnetic field flips over.

As the recent appearance of the largest sunspot for 10 years shows, our nearest star, the Sun, is prone to spells of intense, violent activity and unexpected, dramatic change.