Helio Highlights: October 2025 – NASA Science

On clear nights you can see thousands of stars in the sky. Most of these stars are tens or hundreds of light years away from us. AND light year is the distance a beam of light travels in one year: about 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers). This means that the stars we see at night require their light, which travels to about 186,000 miles per second (or about 300 thousand kilometers per second), tens or hundreds of years to reach us.

But during the day we see only one star: the Sun. It dominates the daytime sky because it’s so close — about 93 million miles (or 150 million kilometers) away. This distance is also called one astronomical unitand its second unit of measurement that astronomers use to record distances in space. But even if 1 AU seems like a long way, it’s still about 270 thousand times closer than Alpha Centaurithe next nearest star system.

The sun is not only close – it is also gigantic! The sun is big enough to corresponds to more than one million countries within it, and has greater mass than 330 thousand Earth compose. Its light also provides the energy that allows life as we know it to flourish. For these reasons, the Sun is strongly present in our lives. We all have a relationship with the Sun, so it is necessary to know about it, about the benefits and dangers of its presence.

In the fall, most students in the United States return to the new school year after summer vacation. This back-to-school season offers a wonderful opportunity to reach students after a few months of fun in the sun and capture their imaginations with new information about how our home star works and how it affects their lives.

To that end, NASA strives to educate and inform students and teachers about the Sun, its features, and the ways it affects our lives. NASA’s Heliophysical Education Team for Activation (HEAT) teaches people of all ages about the Sun, covering everything from how to view the eclipse safely to how to mitigate the effects of geomagnetic storms.

This often means tailoring lesson plans for teachers. By connecting NASA scientists who study heliophysics with educational experts who align the material with K-12 content standards, HEAT takes heliophysics from the lab to the classroom. Making solar science accessible enables students of all ages and backgrounds to engage and be enthralled by discovery and instills a lifelong thirst for knowledge that builds the next generation of scientists.

Since 2007, NASA’s Living with a star (LWS) and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Cooperation programs for the advancement of Earth system science (CPAESS) collaborated to offer Summer school of heliophysics program for doctoral students and postdoctoral students. This program aims to promote heliophysics as an integrated science, teaching a new generation of researchers to engage in interdisciplinary communication while still at the beginning of their careers.

As part of its efforts to raise awareness of the scientific and societal importance of heliophysics, and to inspire future scientists and stimulate progress in heliophysics as a discipline, NASA Heliophysical Education Team for Activation (NASA HEAT) is working on a series of educational materials designed to engage students with real-world mission data.

My NASA datain collaboration with NASA HEAT, has released a new set of resources for space weather educators. My NASA Data supports the use of authentic NASA data as part of classroom learning materials. These materials include lesson plans, mini-lessons (shorter activities for quick engagement), student-centered interactives, and a longer “story map,” which deepens exploration of the phenomenon over multiple classes.

These resources are designed to engage students in data and observations collected during past and ongoing missions, including those of the European Space Agency Solar OrbiterNASA’s Parker solar probe and Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), and more.

One example of this is the educational material released to support efforts targeting the 2023 and 2024 US solar eclipses. These materials allowed students to collect their own cloud and temperature observation data during eclipse s GLOBE eclipse watchers tools. This gave them the opportunity to participate in the scientific process making a significant contribution to our understanding of the Earth system and the global environment.

Groups like HEAT don’t just foster interest in science to inspire the next generation of heliophysicists. Just as amateur astronomers can bring much more data than their professional counterparts, citizen scientists they can do much to support the same institutions that may have inspired them to embrace citizen science practices. This could mean anything from helping track sunspots to reporting on the effects of space weather events.

These enthusiasts are also adept at sharing knowledge about heliophysics. Even just one person inspired to buy a telescope with right solar filter (international standard ISO 12312-2), set it up in the park and teach your neighbors that the sun can do amazing work, and there are many more of them than professional scientists. This means that these amateur heliophysicists can reach further than even the best official reach.

Whether they take place in the classroom, at conferences, or in online lectures, the efforts of science communicators are a vital part of the work done at NASA. As scientists make new discoveries, these writers, teachers, audio and video producers, and outreach specialists are passionate about making those discoveries available to the public.

All this work helps to inspire tomorrow’s scientists and inspire wonder in today’s citizen scientists. The sun is a constant and majestic presence in our lives and offers many reasons for inspiration, both now and in the future.