The Solar Orbiter just completed its commissioning phase while en route to the Sun. It has already provided valuable looks at solar campfires and Venus’s magnetic fields, and it promises much more.
the Sun
Posted inFeatures
The Young Earth Under the Cool Sun
How did our planet avoid being frozen solid during the early days of our solar system?
Posted inNews
Accurate Simulation of Sun’s Rotation Might Illuminate Solar Cycle
Scientists have known for 400 years about a particularity in the way the Sun rotates. It took the world’s most powerful supercomputer to accurately simulate it.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Newly Improved Solar Spectral Irradiance Composite Record
A new study accurately captures solar irradiance, which is crucial to understand the energetics and radiation balance of Earth and its influences on the cryosphere, atmosphere, and ocean currents.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Wind: Discoveries and Impacts of a Venerable Spacecraft
Wind has been one of the most robust, diverse, long-lasting, and impactful heliophysics missions ever to have been carried out.
Posted inEditors' Vox
New Book Collection Presents Latest in Heliophysics Research
A new set of five books presents the latest science on the Sun and the solar wind, magnetospheres in the solar system, Earth’s ionosphere, Earth’s upper atmosphere, and the effects of space weather.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Observing the Sun via Soil Moisture Measurements
Solar radio bursts are background noise for satellite-based radio observations that monitor soil moisture, so, with appropriate processing, those observations can provide data on radio bursts.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
The Cosmic Timeline of Heliophysics
Thom Moore began his career after the start of the space age. This is the story of how he converted his interests in evolution, philosophy, and psychology and writing into the study of heliophysics.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Better Understanding of How the Sun Bends Light
Incorporating the refractive index of the Sun into models of gravitational lensing effects improves agreement with measurements of the phenomenon.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Altitude Matters for Solar Eclipse Observations
The path of a solar eclipse through Earth’s ionosphere, which can be quite different than it is at ground level, appears to explain patterns of ionized particle depletions.