STScI

The sun: Our star and the polar lights

The sun is the star around which our planets revolve. It plays a crucial role for life on Earth by providing light and heat. But the sun is also responsible for spectacular phenomena, such as the auroras. The sun goes...

… and then came the polar lights

Typically, the electrons from a mass ejection from the sun take two to three days to reach Earth. And since a lot of matter is ejected from sunspots in particular, strong auroras could certainly be expected from the...

Monster spots on the sun…

To enrich today’s Father’s Day with something meaningful, I continued the solar observation I started yesterday this morning with an almost open and clear sky. Looking at the two sunspots AR 3663 and a...

The Dark Shark

The dark nebula LDN 1235 (also known as the Dark Shark) is located in the constellation Cepheus and is best observed in the months of May-December. It is a molecular cloud about 650 light years away and around 15 light...