Test Your Knowledge!

What do you know about the sun? Earth's fascinating star, our Sun, can teach us about many things, for example, about the formation of our Solar System, basic physics processes, or our space environment. Try some of our quizzes to learn more about the Sun:

• Comparison Activities - How big, how hot, and how far away is the Sun?
• Sunspot Quiz - Why are sunspots dark? How long is the sunspot cycle, on average?
• Granulation Quiz - These sets of questions test your knowlege of solar granules.

More Interactive Features...
 

Would your high school like to monitor solar storms? High above us lies a desolate place where continual blasts of particles and energy from the Sun pound the top of Earth's atmosphere. This "ionized" region, where electrons and nuclei dart around freely, is a plasma we call the ionosphere. The ionosphere reacts strongly to the intense x-ray and ultraviolet radiation released by the Sun during a solar flare or solar storm. We can track these solar disturbances by monitoring changes to the Earth's ionosphere. The Solar Center has a project to place ionospheric monitors in high schools and community colleges around the world.

Check out Space Weather Monitors.