June 19, 2020
The weekend of June 20 – 21, 2020 has a lot going on when it comes to the Sun. We get to enjoy two exciting events thanks to the orbital dance between Earth and the Moon as the move together […]
March 19, 2020
It’s Time Again for the Change of Seasons—the Vernal or March Equinox 2020! This marks the beginning of spring for the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of fall for the Southern Hemisphere. The change happens at 11:49 p.m. EDT (0349 […]
January 5, 2020
All of us on Earth and in orbit reached our closest point to the Sun, January 5 at 2:48 EST or 7:48 Universal Time (UT). This point of closest approach to the Sun is called perihelion. The point when Earth […]
December 21, 2019
The December solstice for 2019 arrives on Dec. 22nd at 04:19 UT (December 21st 11:19 pm EST). It is called the winter solstice for the Northern Hemisphere and the summer solstice for the Southern Hemisphere. But what is the solstice […]
June 30, 2019
Did you miss the Total Solar Eclipse! Check out our recap & replay of the live event.
June 21, 2019
Happy June Solstice 2019! The beginning of summer for the northern hemisphere and winter for the southern hemisphere. The June Solstice comes on June 21, 2019 at 11:54 a.m. EDT. But what is the solstice exactly? There are two solstices […]
March 2, 2019
The Sun, as shown by the illustration to the left, can be divided into six layers. From the center out, the layers of the Sun are as follows: the solar interior composed of the core (which occupies the innermost quarter […]
February 7, 2019
Near-Earth asteroids like Bennu pose a potential danger to our planet, so it's important to predict their orbits with great accuracy. Unfortunately, a phenomenon called the Yarkovsky effect can make these predictions difficult over long time periods. How does this effect work?
February 5, 2019
The Sun is 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) away from the Earth (this distance varies slightly throughout the year because the Earth's orbit is an ellipse and not a perfect circle).
July 14, 2018
On July 14 2000, the sun produced a spectacular show! Sunspot region NOAA AR9077 when it was close to sun center let of a BANG!!! It was what one might call a text book space weather event. First came the […]
December 21, 2017
The December solstice for 2017 begins on Dec. 21st at 16:28 UT (11:28 am EST). It is called the winter solstice for the Northern Hemisphere and the summer solstice for the Southern Hemisphere. But what is the solstice exactly? There […]
August 21, 2017
For the first time since 1979, the contiguous United States will be treated to a total solar eclipse. Even more exciting, the path of totality across the USA starts in Oregon and ends in South Carolina.