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NOAA’s GOES-19, equipped with the world’s first operational space-based coronagraph, is beginning to monitor solar activity and space weather. CCOR-1 observations will soon aid in warning systems for solar disruptions that affect Earth. Credit: NOAA/NASA NOAA’s new Compact Coronagraph, CCOR-1, onboard the GOES-19 satellite, has begun transmitting its first images, revealing solar activities like coronal mass ejections (CMEs). NOAA has released the first images from the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR-1), a powerful solar telescope aboard the new GOES-19 satellite. CCOR-1, the world’s first operational space-based coronagraph, began observing the sun’s corona—the faint, outermost layer of the solar atmosphere—on September 19, 2024....

Scientists reveal the potential for massive, and potentially destructive, eruptions from the sun. On May 1, 2019, the star next door erupted. In a matter of seconds, Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our sun, got thousands of times brighter than usual — up to 14,000 times brighter in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum. The radiation burst was strong enough to split any water molecules that might exist on the temperate, Earth-sized planet orbiting that star; repeated blasts of that magnitude might have stripped the planet of any atmosphere. It would be bad news if the Earth’s sun ever...