The Sun

The strongest solar flare in half a decade just launched off the sun from the same sunspot group that triggered dazzling auroras last weekend. But don't expect northern lights this time around.

Auroras occur when charged solar particles bash into Earth's magnetic field and funnel toward the poles. The types of atoms these particles hit determines the color of light emitted.

Between Friday (May 10) and Sunday (May 12), people across the world were treated to stunning aurora displays as Earth's magnetic field experienced its biggest disturbance since October 2003. The supercharged storm also messed with satellites and caused power grid irregularities.

Space weather experts warn that Earth could experience one of its worst geomagnetic storms in years after a gigantic, frenzied sunspot released five back-to-back solar storms directly at our planet. The explosive event could trigger vibrant auroras across large parts of North America.

A sunspot so big it rivals the gigantic sunspot responsible for the Carrington Event in 1859 has unleashed another X-class solar flare, triggering radio blackouts on Earth.

Coronal moss grows, solar rain falls and plasma eruptions rear their gargantuan heads in this fiery landscape of the sun's outer atmosphere, taken by ESA's Solar Orbiter.

Satellite images capture striking differences between the 2017 and 2024 total solar eclipses that swept across North America, including variations in the moon's shadow along the path of totality.

In the early hours of Tuesday (April 23), quadruple solar flares near-simultaneously exploded from across the sun's surface, and there's a good chance that one of these outbursts launched a solar storm toward Earth.

During the historic April 8 total solar eclipse, a government radio station in Colorado started sending out slightly shifted "time signals" to millions of people across the globe as the moon's shadow altered the upper layers of our atmosphere. However, these altered signals did not actually change the time.

The next total solar eclipse will be visible from parts of Spain, Iceland and Greenland in 2026. Here's everything you need to know about how to watch the next solar eclipse.