The Sun

Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics
Heliophysics Division
Science & Research
Solar Wind
The Sun
Wind Mission
Picture it: 1994. The first World Wide Web conference took place in Geneva, the first Chunnel train traveled under the English Channel, and just three years after the end of the Cold War, the first Russian instrument on a U.S. spacecraft launched into deep space from Cape Canaveral. The mission to study the solar wind, […]
Posted November 1, 2024
Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX)
Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics
Heliophysics Division
International Space Station (ISS)
Science Mission Directorate
Solar Wind
Space Weather
The Sun
NASA’s Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX) is ready to launch to the International Space Station to reveal new details about the solar wind including its origin and its evolution. Launching in November 2024 aboard SpaceX’s 31st commercial resupply services mission, CODEX will be robotically installed on the exterior of the space station.
Posted October 30, 2024
Heliophysics
Heliosphere
The Solar System
The Sun
Voyager 1
Voyager 2
Voyager Program
The spacecraft uses its thrusters to stay pointed at Earth, but after 47 years in space some of the fuel tubes have become clogged. Engineers working on NASA’s Voyager 1 probe have successfully mitigated an issue with the spacecraft’s thrusters, which keep the distant explorer pointed at Earth so that it can receive commands, send […]
Posted September 10, 2024
Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics
Heliophysics Division
Parker Solar Probe (PSP)
Science & Research
Science Mission Directorate
Solar Flares
Solar Orbiter
Solar Wind
Space Weather
The Sun
Since the 1960s, astronomers have wondered how the Sun’s supersonic “solar wind,” a stream of energetic particles that flows out into the solar system, continues to receive energy once it leaves the Sun. Now, thanks to a lucky lineup of a NASA and an ESA (European Space Agency)/NASA spacecraft both currently studying the Sun, they […]
Posted August 30, 2024
Earth's Atmosphere
Earth's Magnetic Field
Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics
Heliophysics Division
ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer)
Ionosphere
Missions
Science Mission Directorate
Space Weather
The Sun
After contributing to many important findings on the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space — an area where space weather can interfere with both satellites and communications signals — NASA’s ICON (Ionospheric Connection Explorer) mission has come to an end.
Posted July 24, 2024
2023 Solar Eclipse
2024 Solar Eclipse
Heliophysics
Heliophysics Division
Parker Solar Probe (PSP)
Science Activation
The Sun
The Heliophysics Big Year (HBY) is a global celebration of the Sun’s influence on Earth and the entire solar system. It began with the Annular Solar Eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023, continued through the Total Solar Eclipse on Apr. 8, 2024, and will conclude with Parker Solar Probe’s closest approach to the Sun in December […]
Posted July 9, 2024
Earth's Atmosphere
Goddard Space Flight Center
GOLD (Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk)
Heliophysics
Ionosphere
The Sun
Who knew Earth’s upper atmosphere was like alphabet soup? NASA’s Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission has revealed unexpected C- and X-shaped formations in an electrified layer of gas high above our heads called the ionosphere.
Posted June 27, 2024
Mars
Curiosity (Rover)
Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)
The Solar System
The Sun
The Sun will be at peak activity this year, providing a rare opportunity to study how solar storms and radiation could affect future astronauts on the Red Planet. In the months ahead, two of NASA’s Mars spacecraft will have an unprecedented opportunity to study how solar flares — giant explosions on the Sun’s surface — […]
Posted April 29, 2024
Ames Research Center
Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics
Heliophysics Division
IRIS (Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph)
MUSE (Multi-slit Solar Explorer)
Sounding Rockets
Sounding Rockets Program
Sunspots
The Sun
Did you know the Sun has moss? Due to its resemblance to the earthly plants, scientists have named a small-scale, bright, patchy structure made of plasma in the solar atmosphere “moss.” This moss, which was first identified in 1999 by NASA’s TRACE mission, blossoms around the center of a sunspot group, where magnetic conditions are […]
Posted April 16, 2024
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes
Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics
Missions
Science & Research
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
Stars
Sunspots
TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)
The Solar System
The Sun
The Universe
Guessing your age might be a popular carnival game, but for astronomers it’s a real challenge to determine the ages of stars. Once a star like our Sun has settled into steady nuclear fusion, or the mature phase of its life, it changes little for billions of years. One exception to that rule is the […]
Posted April 4, 2024
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