NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Table of Contents

These pages are about solar flares, the biggest explosions in the solar system. Their purpose is to provide

some general information about solar flares.

a "feel" for scientific research into the energetic emissions from flares.

a glance into the future of solar flare research.

In these pages we address the general questions:

What is a solar flare?

Why study solar flares?

What impact do solar flares have on human activities?

and the following questions specific to the study of solar flares in hard x-rays:

What are hard x-rays?

Why study solar flares in hard x-rays?

What does a solar flare look like when seen in hard x-rays?

Why does the solar flare look like this in hard x-rays?

What does this have to do with NASA?

X-rays from the Sun and other objects in the sky can only be observed from above the Earth's atmosphere.

Solar flares have been imaged by the Hard X-ray Telescope on the Yohkoh Satellite.

NASA's Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) is currently observing the high-energy radiation from solar flares.

Space Weather: What Impact Do Solar Flares
Have on Human Activities?

Read "The Mysterious Origins of Solar Flares"
in the April, 2006, issue of Scientific American

Assemble a Paper Model of the RHESSI Spacecraft
(Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Use the knowledge you gain from these pages to solve the
Solar Flare Theory Crossword Puzzle

Answers to Readers' Questions

Other Web sites and some good, old-fashioned books that contain information about the Sun

Several of the web pages in this site contain short video animations in Video for Windows (AVI) and MPEG format. These are best viewed with your video player set to continuously cycle (Auto Repeat) the video.

Next: What is a Solar Flare?

These web pages contain hyperlinks to terms in a solar physics glossary. Choose this link (if your browser supports frames) to view the glossary simultaneously with subsequent pages, starting with "What is a Solar Flare?".

Table of Contents

We would appreciate any questions, comments, or suggestions. Please send e-mail.

Pages Posted: September 23, 1996

Last Revised: August 1, 2007

Selected by the sciLINKS program, a service of National Science Teachers Association. Copyright 2001

Approved by Schoolzone's team of independent education reviewers

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