Sun

The US Is Trying to Expedite Sunscreen Innovation

Sunscreen is currently subject to an approval process similar to that of new pharmaceuticals

Curtains of light weave across the sky over Fairbanks, Alaska, on September 12.

Powerful Solar Flare Paints the Sky With Candy-Colored Auroras

Two back-to-back flares sent clouds of charged particles racing toward Earth, creating auroras that may last through the weekend

Ghostly Neutrinos Created in the Heart of the Sun Are Finally Detected

This is the most direct evidence supporting researchers’ ideas about how the Sun is powered

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Ultraviolet Camera Reveals the Secret Price of Sunbathing

Some of the damage done to your skin by UV rays is hard to see

The comet Cheryumov-Gerasimenko seems to be shaped like a rubber duckie

The ESA is on a Mission to Harpoon a Duck-Shaped Comet

As if catching a comet wasn't already hard enough

The Gurranes — Moonlight, Castletownshend, Ireland, 2005

11 Photographs of Mysterious Megaliths

Photographer Barbara Yoshida traveled across the globe to capture prehistoric stone monuments shrouded in moonlight

The Lake, Petworth: Sunset, Fighting Bucks, painted by J.M.W. Turner around 1829, was one of several works studied to see if there was a connection between the colors used in the image and volcanic particles in the atmosphere at the time of the painting's creation.

How Paintings of Sunsets Immortalize Past Volcanic Eruptions

The balance of reds and greens reflects the amount of tiny particles in the atmosphere, scientists say

Every 11 years, as part of the solar cycle, the Sun’s magnetic field flips, coinciding with a maximum in activity such as solar flares.

The Sun’s Magnetic Field Is About to Reverse

Every 11 years as part of the solar cycle, the Sun's magnetic field flips. What's in store for Earth when the field reverses a few months from now?

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Why the Sun Was So Quiet for So Long

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The Glorious Sun: An Idea for Christmas Ornaments

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The Sun Is More Than a Blob of Yellow

A view of the Thirteen Towers of Chankillo, in Peru.

Return of the Sun Cult

In Peru, scientists discover the oldest solar observatory in the Americas

Beyond Time

A unique sundial marks places as well as hours

This image of the Sun's outermost layer, or corona, was taken June 10, 1998, by TRACE (Transition Region and Coronal Explorer). The Earth-orbiting NASA spacecraft, launched two months earlier, has an unobstructed view of the Sun eight months of the year. It is helping to solve the mystery of why the Sun's corona is so much hotter (3.6 million degrees Farenheit) than its surface (11,000 degrees Farenheit). TRACE is also shedding light on solar storms, which damage satellites and disrupt power transmissions.

Celestial Sightseeing

From Triton's active geysers to the Sun's seething flares, newly enhanced images from U.S. and foreign space probes depict the solar system as never before

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