The Solar Physics Group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center was formed in the early 1970's in conjunction with the Apollo Skylab Mission. These pages contain an overview of solar physics itself along with highlights of our own work, our current projects, and possible future missions.

Sun Facts

Solar radius = 695,990 km = 432,470 mi = 109 Earth radii

Solar mass = 1.989 10³⁰ kg = 4.376 10³⁰ lb = 333,000 Earth masses

Solar luminosity (energy output of the Sun) = 3.846 10³³ erg/s

Surface temperature = 5770 K = 9,930º F

Surface density = 2.07 10^-7 g/cm³ = 1.6 10^-4 Air density

Surface composition = 70% H, 28% He, 2% (C, N, O, ...) by mass

Central temperature = 15,600,000 K = 28,000,000º F

Central density = 150 g/cm³ = 8 × Gold density

Central composition = 35% H, 63% He, 2% (C, N, O, ...) by mass

Solar age = 4.57 10⁹ yr  

New/Updated Pages

The Sunspot Cycle - Updated 2008/09/02

Sunspot Cycle Predictions - Updated 2008/09/02

Sunspot Area Database - Updated 2008/09/02

Papers -  Updated 2008/07/08 (Hathaway and Choudhary 2008)

Papers -  Updated 2008/07/08 (Gary, Davis, and West 2008)

Papers -  Updated 2008/07/08 (Wilson and Hathaway 2008b)

Papers -  Updated 2008/03/21 (Wilson and Hathaway 2008a)

Papers -  Updated 2008/03/21 (Wilson and Hathaway 2007)

Presentations -  Updated 2008/03/21 (To What Extent does Solar Variability Contribute to Climate Change?)

Papers -  Updated 2007/07/02 (Williams, Hathaway, and Cuntz 2007)

Papers -  Updated 2007/07/02 (Sterling, Harra, and Moore 2007)

Papers -  Updated 2007/07/02 (Moore, Sterling, and Suess 2007)

Papers -  Updated 2007/03/06 (Gary et al. 2007b)

Papers -  Updated 2007/02/23 (Moore and Sterling 2007)

Recent Solar Physics News Stories

2008/03/28 Old Solar Cycle Returns
2008/03/22 Spring is Aurora Seasson
2008/01/10 Solar Cycle 24 Begins
2007/12/14 Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning?
2007/12/06 New Discovery: The Sun is Bristling with X-ray Jets
2007/10/01 The Sun Rips Off a Comet Tail
2007/09/18 A Giant Trilobite on the Sun
2007/05/25 A Breakthrough in Solar Storm Forecasting
2007/04/24 A Massive Explosion on the Sun
2007/03/21 New Phenomena on the Sun
2007/02/20 No Safe Place
2007/02/22 A Cool Solar Mystery
2007/02/07 South Pole Flyby
2006/12/21 Scientists Predict Big Solar Cycle
2006/11/17 X-ray Transit of Mercury
2006/11/02 First Light for Hinode
2006/09/21 Surprises for the Edge of the Solar System
2006/09/01 Solar Sentinels
2006/08/15 Backward Sunspot
2006/05/10 Long Range Solar Forecast
2006/03/10 Solar Storm Warning