Press Releases & Feature Stories Archive - Solar Physics Laboratory

NASA’s BITSE Solar Scope Is Ready for Balloon Flight Over New Mexico

08.23.2019

NASA is getting ready to test a new way to see the Sun, high over the New Mexico desert: a coronagraph called BITSE. BITSE will fly up to the edge of the atmosphere from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and seeks to explain how the Sun spits out the solar wind.

One Year, 2 Trips Around Sun for NASA's Parker Solar Probe

08.12.2019

Since Parker Solar Probe launched on Aug. 12, 2018, Earth has made one trip around the Sun, while the daring solar explorer is well into its third orbit.

NASA Scientists Find Sun’s History Buried in Moon’s Crust

06.17.2019

Scientists are realizing that the Moon contains clues to the ancient mysteries of the Sun, which are crucial to understanding the development of life.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Celebrates 60 Years

04.29.2019

On May 1, 1959, the Beltsville Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was renamed NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in honor of Robert H. Goddard, widely considered the father of modern rocketry. Thus began a 60-year boom in science and technological innovation.

Unexpected Rain on Sun Links Two Solar Mysteries

04.05.2019

Researchers find rain on the Sun in an unexpected place. The findings could create a new link between two of the biggest mysteries in solar physics.

And the Blobs Just Keep on Coming

04.04.2019

Scientists re-inspected 45-year-old Helios data, finding long trains of massive blobs — like lava lamp's otherworldly bubbles, but 50 to 500 times the size of Earth — that ooze from the Sun every 90 minutes or so.

NASA Invites Media to 57th Annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium

03.15.2019

Media are invited to the 57th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium on March 20-21.

Solar Tadpole-Like Jets Seen With NASA’S IRIS Add New Clue to Age-Old Mystery

02.19.2019

Scientists have discovered tadpole-shaped jets coming out of the Sun that may help explain why the corona (the wispy upper atmosphere of our star) is so inexplicably hot.

Preparing for Discovery With NASA's Parker Solar Probe

12.12.2018

On Dec. 12, four researchers gathered at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union to share what they hope to learn from Parker Solar Probe.

NASA Retires Prolific Solar Observatory After 16 Years

11.20.2018

More than 16 years after launching the mission on Feb. 5, 2002, NASA is retiring the solar observatory RHESSI, short for the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager.

Parker Solar Probe Reports Good Status After Close Solar Approach

11.07.2018

Parker Solar Probe is alive and well after skimming by the Sun at just 15 million miles from our star's surface. This is far closer than any spacecraft has ever gone. Mission controllers received the status beacon from the spacecraft at 4:46 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2018. The beacon indicates status "A" — the best of all four possible status signals.

NASA Team to Fly First-Ever Coronagraph Capable of Determining the Formation of the Solar Wind

11.06.2018

An observational technique first proposed more than four decades ago to measure the physical parameters of the corona that determine the formation of the solar wind — the source of disturbances in Earth’s upper atmosphere — will be demonstrated for the first time next year.

Parker Solar Probe Breaks Record, Becomes Closest Spacecraft to Sun

10.29.2018

Parker Solar Probe now holds the record for closest approach to the Sun by a human-made object. The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun's surface on Oct. 29, 2018, at about 1:04 p.m. EDT, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team.

Parker Solar Probe Looks Back at Home

10.24.2018

On Sept. 25, 2018, Parker Solar Probe captured a view of Earth as it sped toward the first Venus gravity assist of the mission.

Parker Solar Probe Changed the Game Before it Even Launched

10.04.2018

On Oct. 3, Parker Solar Probe performed a Venus gravity assist that drew its orbit closer to the star by 4 million miles. But if you'd asked anyone before 2007, Venus would not have come up as the key to the mission puzzle.

Three NASA Missions Return 1st-Light Data

09.21.2018

NASA’s continued quest to explore our solar system and beyond received a boost of new information this week with three key missions proving not only that they are up and running, but that their science potential is exceptional.

Illuminating First Light Data from Parker Solar Probe

09.19.2018

Just over a month into its mission, Parker Solar Probe has returned first-light data from its four instrument suites. These early observations show that each of the instruments is working well.

NASA, ULA Launch Parker Solar Probe on Historic Journey to Touch Sun

08.12.2018

Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is About to Lift Off

08.09.2018

Stay tuned — Parker is about to take flight. At 3:33 a.m. EDT on Aug. 11, while most of the U.S. is asleep, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be abuzz with excitement. At that moment, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, the agency’s historic mission to "touch" the Sun, will have its first opportunity to lift off.

Parker Solar Probe and the Birth of the Solar Wind

07.30.2018

This summer, humanity embarks on its first mission to touch the Sun: A spacecraft will be launched into the Sun’s outer atmosphere. Facing several-million-degree Fahrenheit temperatures, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will directly sample solar particles and magnetic fields to resolve some of the most important questions in solar science.