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Scientists Share Early Results from NASA’s Solar Eclipse Experiments
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By European Space Agency
Today, the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission unveils its first images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere – the solar corona. The mission’s two satellites, able to fly as a single spacecraft thanks to a suite of onboard positioning technologies, have succeeded in creating their first ‘artificial total solar eclipse’ in orbit. The resulting coronal images demonstrate the potential of formation flying technologies, while delivering invaluable scientific data that will improve our understanding of the Sun and its enigmatic atmosphere.
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:40 Proba-3 artificially created what is normally a rare natural phenomenon: a total solar eclipse.
In a world first, ESA’s Proba-3 satellites flew in perfect formation, blocking the Sun’s bright disc to reveal its fiery corona. This enigmatic outer layer burns millions of degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface and drives the solar storms that can disrupt life on Earth.
With its first artificial eclipse, Proba-3 has captured detailed images of this mysterious region, offering scientists new insights into our star’s behaviour.
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By European Space Agency
Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter’s unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather.
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By NASA
2 Min Read June’s Night Sky Notes: Seasons of the Solar System
Two views of the planet Uranus appear side-by-side for comparison. At the top, left corner of the left image is a two-line label. The top line reads Uranus November 9, 2014. The bottoms line reads HST WFC3/UVIS. At the top, left corner of the right image is the label November 9, 2022. At the left, bottom corner of each image is a small, horizontal, white line. In both panels, over this line is the value 25,400 miles. Below the line is the value 40,800 kilometers. At the top, right corner of the right image are three, colored labels representing the color filters used to make these pictures. Located on three separate lines, these are F467M in blue, F547M in green, and F485M in red. On the bottom, right corner of the right image are compass arrows showing north toward the top and east toward the left. Credits:
NASA by Kat Troche of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Here on Earth, we undergo a changing of seasons every three months. But what about the rest of the Solar System? What does a sunny day on Mars look like? How long would a winter on Neptune be? Let’s take a tour of some other planets and ask ourselves what seasons might look like there.
Martian Autumn
Although Mars and Earth have nearly identical axial tilts, a year on Mars lasts 687 Earth days (nearly 2 Earth years) due to its average distance of 142 million miles from the Sun, making it late autumn on the red planet. This distance and a thin atmosphere make it less than perfect sweater weather. A recent weather report from Gale Crater boasted a high of -18 degrees Fahrenheit for the week of May 20, 2025.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Seven Years of Summer
Saturn has a 27-degree tilt, very similar to the 25-degree tilt of Mars and the 23-degree tilt of Earth. But that is where the similarities end. With a 29-year orbit, a single season on the ringed planet lasts seven years. While we can’t experience a Saturnian season, we can observe a ring plane crossing here on Earth instead. The most recent plane crossing took place in March 2025, allowing us to see Saturn’s rings ‘disappear’ from view.
A Lifetime of Spring
NASA Hubble Space Telescope observations in August 2002 show that Neptune’s brightness has increased significantly since 1996. The rise is due to an increase in the amount of clouds observed in the planet’s southern hemisphere. These increases may be due to seasonal changes caused by a variation in solar heating. Because Neptune’s rotation axis is inclined 29 degrees to its orbital plane, it is subject to seasonal solar heating during its 164.8-year orbit of the Sun. This seasonal variation is 900 times smaller than experienced by Earth because Neptune is much farther from the Sun. The rate of seasonal change also is much slower because Neptune takes 165 years to orbit the Sun. So, springtime in the southern hemisphere will last for several decades! Remarkably, this is evidence that Neptune is responding to the weak radiation from the Sun. These images were taken in visible and near-infrared light by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Credit: NASA, L. Sromovsky, and P. Fry (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Even further away from the Sun, each season on Neptune lasts over 40 years. Although changes are slower and less dramatic than on Earth, scientists have observed seasonal activity in Neptune’s atmosphere. These images were taken between 1996 and 2002 with the Hubble Space Telescope, with brightness in the southern hemisphere indicating seasonal change.
As we welcome summer here on Earth, you can build a Suntrack model that helps demonstrate the path the Sun takes through the sky during the seasons. You can find even more fun activities and resources like this model on NASA’s Wavelength and Energy activity.
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By USH
A mysterious object within our own galaxy is emitting a bizarre pulsing signal directed at Earth, one that scientists say is unlike anything ever recorded, and they haven’t ruled out an alien origin.
NASA astrophysicist Dr. Richard Stanton, who led the research team, described the signal as “strange” and said its properties defy all known astrophysical explanations. “In more than 1,500 hours of observations, we’ve never seen a pulse like this,”
Stanton noted. The signal originates from a sun-like star approximately 100 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). It was first detected as a flash of light that abruptly brightened, dimmed, and then brightened again, an unusual pattern that immediately drew attention.
Even more puzzling, the pulse repeated exactly four seconds later, matching the first in every detail.
According to Stanton’s findings, published in Acta Astronautica, the signal also triggered bizarre activity in the host star, causing it to partially vanish in just a tenth of a second, a phenomenon with no clear scientific explanation.
It's noteworthy that this object was specifically targeting Earth with its signal, not just broadcasting randomly into space, but directing its transmission toward our planet.
Whatever the intention behind it, that alone is intriguing. Even more interesting is that NASA publicly acknowledged this discovery. While NASA’s statements aren't always fully transparent, could this be a prelude to something bigger, perhaps a forthcoming revelation about the discovery of a Dyson Sphere, or even confirmation of intelligent extraterrestrial life?
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