Dark matter, which can be detected only thanks to its gravitational influence, remains a mystery after decades of research. Because it helps explain most observations quite well, a majority of astronomers however supports the theory. Why then haven’t we been able to identify its nature, or just prove its existence? …

While everyone has seen what looks like a man’s face on the surface of the Moon, nobody has ever seen any on the surface of the Sun… Nobody except SDO.
In the video below, a set of pictures taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory Spacecraft shows the Sun in different wavelengths. …

Over the past few days, the Sun has been pretty active, especially one region, sunspot 1158: it produced two strong solar flares in the last four days.
A solar flare is a large explosion in the Sun’s atmosphere, releasing up to approximately 16% of the total energy output of the Sun …

Yesterday, NASA’s twin STEREO probes moved into position on opposite sides of the Sun. They are now constantly sending back images of the entire star.
Each probe is taking a picture of half of the star, and the images are sent to Earth, where they are combined by researchers to create …

Tomorrow, February 6, 2011, we will be able to see the front and the far side of the Sun, simultaneously, for the first time in history.
Probes to observe the Sun
Stereo (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) is the third mission of NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes (STP) program.
The two nearly identical spacecrafts were …