Articles tagged as Solar System | Smithsonian Magazine

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.

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

November 1, 2003

Caution, Planets Ahead

The world’s largest (maybe) 9-planet solar system model goes up along Route 1 in northern Maine

March 2003

Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird! It’s a Planet. It’s a Very Large Ball of Ice!

It’s Pluto, with its moon, Charon

March 2002