Site Index
Solar Interior
When a model sun starts to look like the real one
Everything we know about the hidden heart of the Sun needs to be deduced from the external clues that we can actually ob...
Although we can't see it without special equipment, the Sun is shaking. Bubbling motion just under the visible surface i...
Solar Exterior
Sunspots appear dark because of their low temperature compared to the surrounding regions. The Sun is constantly produci...
With the invention of the telescope at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Galileo discovered Saturn’s rings, suns...
Modelling the Sun's explosive corona
The sun's atmosphere is a violent, chaotic place, threaded with ropes of twisted magnetic field that build up stress and...
A new website aimed at enthusing and educating 10-14 year old students (KS3/4) and their teachers about the Sun at its e...
The STEREO (Solar Terrestrial RElations Observatory) mission is an ambitious attempt to make three-dimensional observati...
The Sun's 'wrong way around' heat
If you touch a glowing-hot lump of coal, you’ll surely burn your fingers. If, more cautiously, you bring your hand to wi...
Vast clouds of magnetic field and charged particle plasma are blasted away from the Sun. We call these eruptions Coronal...
Interplanetary Space
Monitoring the space scrapheap
Did you think space was empty? Think again! The flotsam and jetsam left over from spacecraft launches, dead satellites a...
Meteorites are rocks that arrive on the Earth’s surface from interplanetary space. Most are fragments of debris from th...
Just a tiny fraction of the matter and energy hurled out into space by the Sun is intercepted by the Earth, but that fra...
Magnetosphere
Seeing the northern lights from Britain
A chance glimpse of the northern lights from your back garden is unlikely without some preparation, particularly if you ...
When is the magnetosphere like an elephant?
The magnetosphere is so vast, it cannot be entirely measured in exact detail. Observations are gathered using a suite of...
UK scientists plan for Chinese space mission
Scientists from the University of Leicester, Imperial College, and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (part of Univers...
British Geological Survey - it's not just about rocks and mountains
Scientists continue to uncover new facts about the Sun and the way it affects the space environment of the Earth. It mig...
Taking the pulse of the magnetosphere
Among the simplest instruments used to study our planet’s link to the Sun are magnetometers. These devices measure the ...
On a clear night over the far northern areas of the world, you may witness a hauntingly beautiful light display in the s...
Launched by two Russian rockets in the summer 2000, the four Cluster spacecraft then used their own thrusters to get to ...
Ionosphere / Atmosphere
Scientists are using bouncing radio waves to monitor the upper atmosphere and study ozone loss in the Arctic and Antarct...
With their lightning, thunder and torrential rain, thunderstorms are pretty impressive from below. But it’s the spectacu...
According to a popular internet search engine, the phrase ‘aurora borealis’ was among the top one hundred searched-for t...
Imagine trying to understand the weather across our entire planet if you only had a handful of weather balloons: it woul...
Human space exploration and satellite survival are compromised by the variable radiation levels encountered in near-eart...
A conventional hospital X-ray photograph is a 2-dimensional shadow of a 3-dimensional subject. If one bone lies in front...
Down on the ground, investigators from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southampton are using a ...
Planetary
A UK team of researchers have discovered a secondary aurora sparkling on Saturn and also started to unravel the mechanis...
The Earth isn’t the only planet in our solar system to possess a magnetic shield or play host to auroral lights. UK scie...
NASA’s Mars Phoenix mission blasted off safely from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday 4th August, aiming for a landi...
Mars and Venus: Earth's 'failed' sibling worlds
UK scientists are also working with ESA's Mars Express and Venus Express missions. In this case they are studying unmagn...
It’s not just a question of downloading data. Almost every aspect of the mission has benefited from British involvement....
The US space agency NASA is admired for its ambitious deep space projects, but British scientists and hardware designers...
International Heliophysical Year
Learn about the Sun-Earth connection at the Royal Society
From July 2nd to 5th the SUNEARTHPLAN are taking part in the Royal Society's Summer Exhibition with an exhibit called 'L...
To celebrate IHY events are being organised aross the country. Please use the contact details or links for further infor...
There are many resources available related to IHY. This page lists some of them.
The IHY outreach programme aims to promote Solar System science and bring together different communities which have an i...
UK scientists are world leaders in the area of heliospheric research. Starting from the interior of the Sun through to l...
International Heliophysical Year (IHY) celebrates 50 years of space exploration and marks the 50th anniversary of Intern...
