Happy New Year 2023

The Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy wishes you a happy and prosperous New Year 2023.

The greetings card was devoted to the Sun, our star. Its activity is monitored in various wavelengths, using instruments and devices owned by our institute. The correspondent database contains images obtained over several decades and used in scientific articles.

Nuclear reactions inside the Sun, mainly composed by atoms of hydrogen, are producing energy and release particles such are nuclei of helium and hydrogen. The particles are released into space by huge events called coronal mass ejections, sometimes associated to localized solar eruptions/solar flares.

Solar particles released in space, are electrically charged, and travel to space as a wind, the solar wind.

The solar wind interact with Earth's magnetosphere and could have an important influence for space activities of artificial satellites. Human activities on Earth might be also influenced, thus it is important to monitor and predict effects of solar activity on Earth. All the effects of solar activity on Earth and neighborhood are called space weather predictions.

Published on: Dec 28, 2022