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from a spy glass to satellites our

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backyard to the very edge of our solar

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system every culture on every continent

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has observed the sun

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we have been searching for the answers

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to the mysteries of time and the seasons

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the web of life on earth

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and our place in the universe

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our sun has always been more than a ball

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of heat and light

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our sun through curious minds and

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innovative technology has allowed us to

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explore how the northern lights dance

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and how our solar system may have formed

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before sophisticated satellites brought

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us vibrant images and wavelengths beyond

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our senses people simply looked at the

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sun

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although he was not alone in his pursuit

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in 1609 galileo galilei pioneered the

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use of the telescope in order to observe

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his detailed sketches produced over the

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summer in 1612 revealed that the sun was

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not a static orb in the sky but a

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galileo's solar discoveries sparked an

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academic interest in the sun leading

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astronomers around the world to

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investigate how the sun shapes life on

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earth

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400 years later astronomers with

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increasingly complex satellite imagers

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investigate the origins and effects of

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there must be something in a sunspot

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that opens up a wealth of knowledge and

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even more questions

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like galileo before him german

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astronomer samuel heinrich schwab became

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fascinated with sunspots from careful

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observation over 17 years schwab found a

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periodic cycling of the average number

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of sunspots

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in the mid-1800s he and other

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astronomers found that the sun has about

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an 11-year cycle between the times when

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we can observe the most and the least

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sunspots

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understanding the 11-year solar cycle

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becomes very crucial in understanding

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the effects of space weather here at

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earth because it really dictates how

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often solar storms will occur and how

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we often underestimate how beautiful a

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scientific discovery can be

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when the themis satellite fleet launched

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in 2007 the mission set out to

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investigate what triggers substorms

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substorms are atmospheric events visible

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in the northern hemisphere as a sudden

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brightening of the northern lights or

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one such substorm in march 2008 produced

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lightning fast aurora with the energy of

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nasa scientists found the answer to this

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mysterious behavior and massive energy

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in giant magnetic ropes

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these can be as wide as the earth itself

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serve as conduits for solar wind

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particles which collide with the earth's

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magnetic field and charge the

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spectacular substorms and auroras these

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ropes are evidence of a direct

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connection between the sun and the

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earth's upper atmosphere

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it is when these ropes form and unravel

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that the highly energetic solar wind

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ignites the earth's magnetic field and

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lights up the northern sky providing a

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celestial dance that has captivated

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sometimes a great discovery is a new

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perspective on the universe we thought

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as the voyager spacecraft's near the

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edge of our sun's reach scientists are

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getting a new look at the expanse and

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shape of the solar system

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over 30 years ago voyager 1 and 2 set

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now as the twin spacecrafts explore the

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outer reaches some nine billion miles

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away from earth they have crossed the

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heliosphere the bubble of supersonic

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however when voyager 2 crossed this

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boundary much closer to the sun than

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expected we received a picture of a

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squashed heliosphere rather than a round

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bubble

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the squashed heliosphere helps

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scientists build up a picture of how the

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sun interacts with the space outside of

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our solar system

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when the recently launched ibex or

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interstellar boundary explorer reaches

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the very distant limits it will further

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the study of how the solar wind

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interacts with the cold gas between

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it's hard to imagine weather being more

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than rain on our weekend or ice on our

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roads

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but space weather can affect the globe

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especially in the way we communicate and

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power our world

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space weather is the environmental

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conditions outside of our planet

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originating from the massively energetic

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output of the sun the solar wind is

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primarily comprised of protons and

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electrons they're streaming outward from

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the sun at speeds of up to a million

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miles an hour and they're constantly

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bombarding the earth's magnetic field

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satellites have been launched to study

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solar wind solar flares coronal mass

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these phenomena impact our atmosphere

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sometimes with devastating force

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so space weather includes power outages

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in high latitude power grids includes

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disruption of spacecraft includes

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radiation that can harm astronauts in

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space

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with any weather prediction is the goal

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these missions will all add to the