I finally get to see the Sun (in Winchester Cathedral)

Great detective work combined with a stroke of luck!

#Aurora over Alveston near Bristol. Could see no colour unless looking through the iphone. Now cloudy ☹️

Amazing data in real time from the @esa.int #SolarOrbiter magnetometer @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social show that this storm will keep its main Bz > 0 field and its total field will decline, resulting in a West-North-East (WNE) flux rope. At the end there should be an interval Bz < 0 (=more aurora!)

Beautiful!

Amazing view towards north-east at Hoher Sonnblick in #Austria! Monday Jan 19 2026 22:40 CEST #polarlights #northernlights #spaceweather www.foto-webcam.eu/webcam/klein...

A fast coronal mass ejection from the Sun has arrived at Earth! If you have clear skies tonight, you might be lucky enough to see some aurora. It’s cloudy where I am so send photos!

Wow! You have got to see the spectacular prominence eruptions in this latest movie from the European PROBA-3 mission! Congratulations to Andrei Zhukov and his team! 🧪🛰️🔭☀️

The Sun is joined by three planets in the sky this week. Can you guess what they are before opening the thread?

NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) has reached its destination, from where it will study the inner regions and the edge of the vast magnetic bubble created by the Sun: www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-re...

Are you (or do you know of) an undergrad with an interest in solar physics? Check out the Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Program for Summer Students (LEAPS 2026). Myself, Andy To and Henrik Eklund invite you to come work with us at ESTEC on "Catching the Solar Wind in Action". leaps.strw.leidenuniv.nl#none

Venus now begins its long trek into the dusk sky. SOHO’s LASCO C2 coronagraph can also follow Venus right through superior conjunction:

Happy 2026 everyone! This year will see the launch of Smile (Sun-Earth interaction mission), new data/findings from Euclid (revealing more about the dark Universe), the 20th anniversary of Hinode (solar physics mission) & the re-entry of the remaining two Cluster satellites (magnetosphere mission).

Today is the December solstice at 15:03 GMT/16:03 CET. This @eumetsat.int MTG‑I1 image from 19 December 2025, 06:00 GMT, shows Earth’s day–night terminator tilted near its annual maximum of about 23.5°.

Stepped outside and immediately saw two very bright shooting stars before some light cloud rolled in. Fantastic! www.popastro.com/meteor/gemin...

Beautiful morning at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory

Space weather isn’t just about lovely displays of the aurora. There is a very real impact on our technology too.

The Goddard Space Flight Center has played a central role in America’s success in space exploration. It’s shocking to see what is now happening to it edition.cnn.com/2025/11/04/s...

#WorldSpaceWeek 🚀 PhD student Aida Seye (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory) and Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell discuss shared passions and challenges in chasing cosmic dreams on BBC's Sky at Night programme (from 20 mins 23 secs): bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis.... #wsw2025 #WomenInScience #SkyAtNight #STEM

On Oct 31st, the London Philharmonic Orchestra will be celebrating the ocean, and the ace @lizbonnin.bsky.social and I will be speaking on stage beforehand about all things ocean. Tickets are available here, if you'd like to join us and immerse yourself in our water world: lpo.org.uk/event/harmon...

“In an anonymous survey of (UK Physics) department heads by the Institute of Physics (IoP), 26% said they faced potential closure of their department within the next two years, while 60% said they expected courses to be reduced.” www.theguardian.com/education/20...

🌞🎶 Experience the aurora like never before! Aurora — an immersive exhibition turning May 2024 aurora into sound 🔊 📅 Opens 10 Sept, 5–6.30pm 📍 Gallery North, Northumbria Uni, NE1 8QE #Aurora #SpaceWeather #Sonification #NorthumbriaUni #NewcastleUni #WeAreAllSolarOrbiters

What an incredible journey Solar Orbiter is on!

For over 25 years, science and discovery centres have been at the heart of inspiring millions of people to explore, question, and be part of UK science and technology. But they're seriously under threat… 1/3

There were some nice features on the Sun yesterday. I have posted more on my Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/eagle...

Yesterday the Sun produced this moderate-class #SolarFlare. Despite its smaller size, it was a long duration event, continuing for several hours and providing this hypnotic view of beautiful coronal rain (seen in yellow) and Supra-arcade Downflows (seen in cyan). Mesmerising!

The success of the UK space sector, and the role that the UK Space Agency plays in this, requires proper resourcing. Something the government must still commit to when the UKSA is absorbed by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology next year.

Don’t worry, I won’t be colliding with the Earth 🤣

Harsh but true

This is great news! Congratulations Michele! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Complex and completely mesmerising!

Dazzling first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory mark the start of a 10-year mission to build a high-definition time-lapse record of the Universe and help pin down what dark energy might be. The mission involves Dr Ellen Hang, Prof Benjamin Joachimi and Prof Jason McEwen @uclmaps.bsky.social

Happy solstice!

NEWS JUST IN >> Liverpool Cathedral had an incredible 85,473 visitors to the Sun artwork~Helios~ when it was there for just one month ! www.my-sun.org

👏👏

Fantastic to see these images from the @esa.int Proba-3 formation flying spacecraft! Beautiful views of the Sun’s atmosphere, at the maximum phase of activity www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

Each summer I look out for swifts arriving back to the valley I live in. This year their number is notably, and sadly, depleted. @hannahbournetaylor.bsky.social’s brilliant book tells us why, and what we can do to support these tiny heros.

Viewing the Sun's poles in the next years with @science.esa.int #SolarOrbiter is of massive importance for a better understanding and prediction of the solar cycle and to unravel how #solarstorms travel away from the Sun. This is a major milestone for this mission!

@esa.int have today released the first images of the poles of the Sun. Thanks to Solar Orbiter, these previously uncharted regions are revealed! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Hey! Lookie what PUNCH (@punch-mission.bsky.social) just saw! Two different solar storms crossing the entire inner solar system! NASA's site doesn't thumbnail well, so click the link for the movie and other images. ☀️🔭🛰️🧪 science.nasa.gov/blogs/punch/...

Great to spend today at the UCL observatory, which opened in 1929 and is where a supernova that occurred in the Cigar Galaxy was discovered!

This is literally what is about to happen to the U.S. scientific space fleet. If the President's budget is enacted by Congress, nearly all functioning heliophysics space missions will be canceled or severely cut, squandering decades of work and ceding the U.S.A.'s hard-won space leadership. 🧪🛰️🔭☀️

Astronomers at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory @uclmaps.bsky.social and the University of Warwick have discovered a giant planet orbiting a tiny star – it shouldn't exist according to planet formation theories www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ju...

Meet Smile. The soon-to-be newest member of our space science mission fleet. Employing X-ray and UV vision to see how Earth reacts to relentless streams and bursts of particles from the Sun. Dive into the mission here 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭🧪 #planetsci

I love the fact that on a star 150 million km away, which is 110 times as wide as the Earth, we have the ability to resolve features just 20 km across nso.edu/press-releas...

There's a fast CME heading into some fast solar wind and some pre-existing slower CMEs. We're currently putting arrival at noon-to-midnight tomorrow, but this forecast may change as more observations become available. Updates here: research.reading.ac.uk/met-spate/hu...

🛰️ 🛰️ ☀️ #Proba3 is now officially the world’s first precision formation flying mission! The mission team has achieved the desired precision – with the two spacecraft maintaining their relative position down to less than a millimetre while flying 150 metres apart! www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup...

A 495 kg Venus landing capsule, launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, will undergo an uncontrolled atmospheric reentry this week. Part of the Venera programme, the object, known as Cosmos-482, failed to escape low-Earth orbit and is now returning to its home planet 53 years after launch.

A nice surprise to find Gaia and Mars (by @lukejerram.bsky.social) at Curtin University’s public event last night

Such lovely detail! Zoom in and discover the varied features of the Sun’s atmosphere.