Sources: NBC
As Mars lines up with Earth and the Sun, it is expected to shine at its biggest and brightest during the night. 2020-10-13
According to a study from researchers at the University of California, Riverside, Venus would be able to support life if Jupiter hadn't altered its orbit around the Sun nearly 4 billion years ago. 2020-10-1
In a rare celestial event, Mercury passes directly between Earth and the Sun for five and a half hours. Mercury's next transit will be in 2032. 2019-11-11
NASA's "Parker Solar Probe" spacecraft becomes the closest ever sent to the sun, by passing 42.7 million km (26.6 million miles) from the sun's surface. The previous record was set in 1976 by the "Helios 2" spacecraft. Parker's elliptical orbit will eventually take it to within 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) of the sun. 2018-10-30
NASA launches the "Parker Solar Probe", an unpiloted spacecraft designed to study the sun. 2018-08-12
Scientists (in the article published in the journal "Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics") warn that the ozone layer that protects people from the sun's ultraviolet radiation is recovering only over less populated areas. 2018-02-6
NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun, from the US state of California. 2013-06-27
New data from the NASA space probe MESSENGER indicate that Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, almost surely has water ice buried beneath the surface at its north pole. 2012-11-29
An unusually large coronal mass ejection emitted by the Sun barely missed the Earth by nine days, dubbed the Solar storm of 2012. If it hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide. 2012-07-23
Astronomers using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope identify a Trojan asteroid, calling it "2010 TK 7 ", orbiting on the same path as the Earth around the Sun. The rock poses no danger to the Earth since it sits in a what is termed a gravitational "sweet spot". 2011-07-28