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Parker Solar Probe Mission (NASA Goddard)
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Posts
- Get Lost in Space! (9/14/2018) - Way back in August, in anticipation of the start of a new school year, I set out to update the pages on this site related to space. Those pages tend to be popular among the teachers and students who use Cosma, and I happen to enjoy updating them, too. It sounded like a short, fun … Continue reading Get Lost in Space!
- Space Art & Junk (1/30/2018) - In certain circles it is not uncommon to trip across the debate “Is graffiti art?” You can also find scads about it online if you are so inclined (Google). However, the debate doesn’t come up all that often in the context of conversations about satellites or space… until now. Earlier this month a company named … Continue reading Space Art & Junk
- Umbraphiles (8/20/2017) - umbraphile : One who loves eclipses, often travelling to see them. — Wiktionary Yes, this is that obligatory post about “The Solar Eclipse” (NASA, Wikipedia). Of course, there had to be one — eclipses really are just too cool to ignore. You’ve already been bombarded with explanations of the science and history of eclipses, but … Continue reading Umbraphiles
- Auroras (7/17/2017) - There was a lot of talk about the potential of seeing Aurora Borealis (a.k.a. the Northern Lights) much further south than usual on Sunday night, but sadly, that didn’t pan out as predicted. The Northern Lights were a letdown in New England (Dialynn Dwyer, Boston.com) For anyone who is bummed about not seeing them, has … Continue reading Auroras
- To touch the Sun (6/1/2017) - The big “space” news this week is that NASA has announced that they renamed the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft the “Parker Solar Probe” in honor of Eugene N. Parker, the astrophysicist from the University of Chicago who predicted the solar wind. The probe is scheduled to launch next summer and become the first mission to … Continue reading To touch the Sun
Resources
These are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma. More…
General
Portal
Our Sun & Solar System Internet Resources (Library of Congress)
Living With a Star Program (NASA)
Solar System Exploration, The Sun, Our Star (NASA.Gov)
Sun Portal (Wikipedia)
Dictionary
Sun : (1) the luminous celestial body around which the earth and other planets revolve, from which they receive heat and light, which is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, and which has a mean distance from earth of about 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000 kilometers), a linear diameter of 864,000 miles (1,390,000 kilometers), and a mass 332,000 times greater than earth (2) a celestial body like the Sun — Webster
OneLook, Free Dictionary, Wiktionary, Urban Dictionary
Thesaurus
Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords
Encyclopedia
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, with internal convective motion that generates a magnetic field via a dynamo process. It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. Its diameter is about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, accounting for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. About three quarters of the Sun’s mass consists of hydrogen (~73%); the rest is mostly helium (~25%), with much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron.
The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V) based on its spectral class. As such, it is informally referred to as a yellow dwarf. It formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud. Most of this matter gathered in the center, whereas the rest flattened into an orbiting disk that became the Solar System. The central mass became so hot and dense that it eventually initiated nuclear fusion in its core. It is thought that almost all stars form by this process.
The Sun is roughly middle-aged; it has not changed dramatically for more than four billion years, and will remain fairly stable for more than another five billion years. After hydrogen fusion in its core has diminished to the point at which it is no longer in hydrostatic equilibrium, the core of the Sun will experience a marked increase in density and temperature while its outer layers expand to eventually become a red giant. It is calculated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of Mercury and Venus, and render Earth uninhabitable. — Wikipedia
Introduction
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Science
Heliophysics means “physics of the Sun” (the prefix “helio”, from Attic Greek hḗlios, means Sun), and appears to have been used only in that sense until quite recently. In the early times, heliophysics was concerned principally with the superficial layers of the star, and was synonymous with what is now more commonly called “solar physics”. Usage was extended explicitly in 1981 to its literal meaning, denoting the physics of the entire Sun: from center to corona, and has been used in that sense since. — Wikipedia
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NASA Heliophysics (NASA)
Science of Heliophysics (HELIO Heliophysics Integrated Observatory)
Solar Physics (Marshall Space Flight Center)
Solar Physics Glossary (NASA)
Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA.gov)
Space Weather.com
Space Weather (Wolfram Alpha)
Solar Storms (Wikipedia)
Future
What will happen when our sun dies? (University of Manchester, Phys.org)
The sun will become a planetary nebula after it dies, astronomers predict (Brooks Hays, UPI)
Preservation
History
Giovanni Cassini Biography (Space.com)
Giovanni Domenico Cassini (Wikipedia)
Sunspots – The Exploratorium’s Guide to Sunspots
Voyages to the Sun (Steven J. Dick, NASA’s Chief Historian)
Missions to Study the Sun (Planetary Society)
Quotation
Library
WorldCat, Library of Congress, UPenn Online Books, Open Library
Participation
Education
Crash Course Kids Space Science: The Sun and Its Influence on Earth (YouTube Channel)
Why does the sun burn us? (Space Place, NASA)
The Sun (Ask an Astronomer, Cornell University)
Sun (Cosmos4Kids)
Course
Crash Course Astronomy (YouTube)
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources
Community
News
Space Weather Live, News about the Sun (NASA), Science Daily, NPR Archives
Book
Government
Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA)
Document
Expression
Fun
Arts
The top 10 suns in art (The Guardian)
Poem
OEDILF: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form
Music
More…
Sun News -- ScienceDaily News about the Sun. Science articles on Sunspots and the Sun's Corona; evidence the Sun has a companion star; images from the far side of the Sun and more.
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NASA finds Neptune moons locked in 'dance of...
on November 14, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Even by the wild standards of the outer solar system, the strange orbits that carry Neptune's two innermost moons are unprecedented, according to newly published research.
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Distant worlds under many suns
on November 13, 2019 at 3:37 pm
An astrophysicist has discovered many new multiple star systems that contain exoplanets. For this, he searched more than 1,300 exoplanet host stars. He found that 15 per cent of those stars have at least one companion star, which is only about half the frequency expected for solar like stars. This could indicate that the influence of several stars in a system disrupts the process of planet formation.
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Views of giant planet in wild orbit would be...
on November 5, 2019 at 12:58 pm
Contrary to previous thought, a gigantic planet in wild orbit does not preclude the presence of an Earth-like planet in the same solar system -- or life on that planet. What's more, the view from that Earth-like planet as its giant neighbor moves past would be unlike anything it is possible to view in our own night skies on Earth.
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Voyager 2 reaches interstellar space
on November 4, 2019 at 4:28 pm
Researchers report the spacecraft Voyager 2 has reached interstellar space, following Voyager 1's historic passage six years ago. In the study, the researchers note a jump in plasma density detected by a plasma wave instrument on the spacecraft as evidence Voyager 2 has entered interstellar space.
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Even 'Goldilocks' exoplanets need a well-behaved...
on October 31, 2019 at 3:25 pm
Scientists model how the 'weather' on a star impacts exoplanets to see if even those thought to be in habitable zones could suffer from solar storms. They expect their work to help narrow the number of exoplanets studied for their potential to harbor life.
Solar Flare News -- ScienceDaily Latest research news on solar flares, the solar cycle, geomagnetic storms and more.
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Distant worlds under many suns
on November 13, 2019 at 3:37 pm
An astrophysicist has discovered many new multiple star systems that contain exoplanets. For this, he searched more than 1,300 exoplanet host stars. He found that 15 per cent of those stars have at least one companion star, which is only about half the frequency expected for solar like stars. This could indicate that the influence of several stars in a system disrupts the process of planet formation.
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Even 'Goldilocks' exoplanets need a well-behaved...
on October 31, 2019 at 3:25 pm
Scientists model how the 'weather' on a star impacts exoplanets to see if even those thought to be in habitable zones could suffer from solar storms. They expect their work to help narrow the number of exoplanets studied for their potential to harbor life.
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An overlooked piece of the solar dynamo puzzle
on October 28, 2019 at 2:41 pm
A previously unobserved mechanism is at work in the Sun's rotating plasma: a magnetic instability, which scientists had thought was physically impossible under these conditions. The effect might even play a crucial role in the formation of the Sun's magnetic field, say researchers.
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Mix master: Modeling magnetic reconnection in...
on October 22, 2019 at 1:28 pm
Many of the most dramatic events in the solar system -- the spectacle of the Northern Lights, the explosiveness of solar flares, and the destructive impact of geomagnetic storms that can disrupt communication and electrical grids on Earth -- are driven in part by a common phenomenon: fast magnetic reconnection. In this process the magnetic field lines in plasma -- the gas-like state of matter consisting of free electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions -- tear, come back together and release large […]
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Surveying solar storms by ancient Assyrian...
on October 16, 2019 at 4:46 pm
Researcher finds evidence of ancient solar magnetic storms based on cuneiform astrological records and carbon-14 dating. This work may help with our understanding of intense solar activity that can threaten modern electronics.