Joe Hanson over at “It’s Okay to Be Smart” has a great video on the random walk photons have to make to escape the core of the sun and other Keep reading
Tag: sun
Magnetic Storms
Periodically, our sun releases plasma in a coronal mass ejection. Afterwards, the local magnetic field lines shift and reorganize. We can see that process in action here because charged particles spin along Keep reading
Solar Eclipses and Coronal Mass Ejections
Observations of many solar phenomena have only become accessible to humans relatively recently with the advent of satellites. Prior to that, it simply wasn’t feasible to observe dynamics in the Keep reading
Where Does the Sun End?
How do you define the edge of our sun? There’s a distinct surface to it, but our star is also surrounded by the corona, an even hotter region of plasma Keep reading
5 Years of SDO
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is our premiere source for data on the sun. In honor of its five-year anniversary, NASA released this beautiful video compiling some of the highlights Keep reading
Convection on the Sun
New photographs showing ultra-fine structure in the sun’s chromosphere and photosphere have been released. They offer a fascinating view into the magnetohydrodynamics of the sun, where the fluid behaviors of Keep reading
Turbulence and Magnetic Field Lines
During a solar flare, magnetic field lines on the sun are often visible due to the flow of plasma–charged particles–along the lines. According to theory, these magnetic lines should remain Keep reading
How the Sun Drives the Earth
This video describes how the sun’s energy drives wind and ocean currents on earth. As solar winds stream forth from the sun, our magnetosphere deflects the brunt of the impact Keep reading
Astronomical Jets
Researchers have pieced together Hubble images of jets from newborn stars into timelapse movies that reveal the interstellar fluid mechanics responsible for the formation of stars like our sun. These Keep reading
Glorious Coronal Mass Ejection
In early June, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a stunning coronal mass ejection, in which larger than usual quantities of cool (relatively speaking) plasma erupted from the surface of the Keep reading