Spacecraft return Sun panoramas^c 2. March 2007

Sun's fickle heart may leave us cold 25. January 2007 There's a dimmer switch inside the sun that causes its brightness to rise and fall on timescales of around 100,000 years - exactly the same period as between ice ages on Earth. So says a physicist who has created a computer model of our star's core. ... (Most scientists believe that the ice ages are the result of subtle changes in Earth's orbit, known as the Milankovitch cycles. One such cycle describes the way Earth's orbit gradually changes shape from a circle to a slight ellipse and back again roughly every 100,000 years. The theory says this alters the amount of solar radiation that Earth receives, triggering the ice ages. However, a persistent problem with this theory has been its inability to explain why the ice ages changed frequency a million years ago.)

Solar probe films plasma loops in action 30. November 2006 Japan's Hinode spacecraft provides a tantalising preview of what to expect when it powers up to its main phase of scientific observations.
Japan launches Sun 'microscope' 25. September 2006

Solar eclipse:
• Skywatchers await total eclipse 28. March 2006
• Catalog of Longest Solar Eclipses

Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high 6. July 2004

Genesis:
• Solar riches survive probe crash 15. March 2006
• Scientists 'hopeful' for Genesis 9. September 2004
• Solar capsule crashes into Earth 8. September 2004
• Genesis probe heads home to Earth 7. September 2004
• Good beginning for Genesis 19. November 2001
• Scientists track incoming probe 1. September 2004

Date and location

Date end: 

0