Related topics: magnetic field · nasa · spacecraft · sun · solar system

New 'Eclipse Watch' tool shows eclipses from space any time

Do you wish you could see a total solar eclipse every day? With a new online tool called Eclipse Watch, you can observe the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, in real time with eclipse-like images from space as we count down ...

ESA and NASA team up to study solar wind

In the run up to April's total solar eclipse, ESA-led Solar Orbiter and NASA-led Parker Solar Probe are both at their closest approach to the sun. Tomorrow (March 29), they are taking the opportunity to join hands in studying ...

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Solar wind

The solar wind is a stream of charged particles—a plasma—ejected from the upper atmosphere of the sun. It consists mostly of electrons and protons with energies of about 1 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed with the passage of time. These particles are able to escape the sun's gravity, in part because of the high temperature of the corona, but also because of high kinetic energy that particles gain through a process that is not well-understood.

The solar wind creates the Heliosphere, a vast bubble in the interstellar medium surrounding the solar system. Other phenomena include geomagnetic storms that can knock out power grids on Earth, the aurorae such as the Northern Lights, and the plasma tails of comets that always point away from the sun.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA