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The global oscillations of the Sun are investigated on the base of three independent sets of data: 1. Records of Total Solar Irradiance (TSI). 2. The average brightness of the photosphere in MDI (SOHO) and HMI (SDO) images. 3. Records of…
Glass provides mechanical, chemical, and UV protection to solar panels, enabling these devices to withstand weathering for several decades. The increasing demand for solar electricity and the need to reduce anthropogenic carbon emissions…
A surprisingly large amount of information on our solar system can be gained from simple measurements of the apparent angular diameters of the sun and the moon. This information includes the average density of the sun, the distance between…
Interactive visualization and simulation of astrophysical phenomena help astronomers and enable digital planetariums and television documentaries to take their spectators on a journey into deep space to explore the astronomical wonders of…
Circumstellar debris disks are the extrasolar analogues of the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. They consist of comets and leftover planetesimals that continuously collide and produce circumstellar dust that can be observed as infrared…
The observation that the shadows of objects change during the course of the day and also for a fixed time during a year led curious minds to realize that the Sun could be used as a timekeeper. However, the daily motion of the Sun has some…
Although there is abundant and diverse observational evidence in support of white dwarf stars hosting planets or debris disks which form in the catastrophic destruction of various planetary bodies, the key processes that explain these…
Ground-based synoptic solar observations provide critical contextual data used to model the large-scale state of the heliosphere. The next decade will see a combination of ground-based telescopes and space missions that will study our Sun's…
Societal dependence on space-based services demands major advances in predicting the impacts of eruptive solar events. Millimeter-wavelength observations offer uniquely direct access to the time-dependent physical conditions in the…
Several observatories around the globe started regular full-disc imaging of the solar atmosphere in the Ca II K line in the early decades of the 20th century. These observations are continued today at a few sites with either old…
Although the Sun is our closest star by many orders of magnitude and despite having sunspot records stretching back to ancient China, our knowledge of the Sun's magnetic field is far from complete. Indeed, even now, after decades of study,…
Having advanced knowledge of solar activity is important because the Sun's magnetic output governs space weather and impacts technologies reliant on space. However, the irregular nature of the solar cycle makes solar activity predictions a…
The Sun's magnetic dynamo cycle features a distinct pattern: a propagating region of sunspot emergence appears around 30 degrees latitude and vanishes near the equator every 11 years. Moreover, longitudinal flows called "torsional…
Star trackers are primarily optical devices that are used to estimate the attitude of a spacecraft by recognising and tracking star patterns. Currently, most star trackers use conventional optical sensors. In this application paper, we…
The Sun is a standard reference object for Astrophysics and also a fascinating subject of study in its own right. X-ray and extreme ultraviolet movies of the Sun's atmosphere show an extraordinary diversity of plasma phenomena, from barely…
Several phenomena connected with the magnetic field of the Sun (the cool sunspots, the hot corona, solar flares, the solar wind) are collectively known as solar activity. This paper discusses how one uses the MHD equations to understand how…
The spin evolution of main sequence stars has long been of interest for basic stellar evolution, stellar aging, stellar activity, and consequent influence on companion planets. Observations of older than solar late-type main-sequence stars…
The Virtual Observatory (VO) is an international attempt to collect astronomical data (images, simulation, mission-logs, etc), organize it and develop tools that let astronomers access this huge amount of information. The VO not only…
Precise photometry from the Kepler space telescope allows not only the measurement of rotation in solar-type field stars, but also the determination of reliable masses and ages from asteroseismology. These critical data have recently…
The next decade of survey astronomy has the potential to transform our knowledge of variable stars. Stellar variability underpins our knowledge of the cosmological distance ladder, and provides direct tests of stellar formation and…