SUN · OUR STAR, LIVE
Live Sun Tracker
The Sun is the engine behind almost everything on the live sky map — the aurora, radio blackouts, the rhythm of the solar cycle. Here it is in real time: today's solar flares, the solar wind streaming toward Earth, the sunspots crossing its face, and every solar eclipse on the horizon. Built from the same free NOAA and NASA data that powers the night-sky view.
THE SUN · LIVE · NASA SDO
The Sun’s surface in visible light (HMI intensitygram) — where sunspots appear as dark blemishes.
The disc is live — full-Sun imagery from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, refreshed as new frames arrive. Switch wavelengths top-right to see the surface, the corona, or the magnetic field; the sunspot markers sit at each active region's real position (NOAA SWPC). Tap a marker for its class and flare odds. Flares and CMEs are listed honestly — the Sun's flare brightness carries no single location, so it is never pinned to a spot.
Strongest in 24h: C3.0.
Bz -1 nT · Enhanced.
Total solar eclipse — The Grand Spanish Eclipse.
Sources: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (flares, solar wind) · NASA eclipse canon. Refreshes ~every 10 min.
Sun layers
4 LIVEWHERE THE SUN MEETS THE SKY
When the Sun is active, the aurora follows. See tonight's northern-lights forecast on the Sky canvas.
Field guides
LEARN MOREShort explainers on our star — what each wavelength reveals, how flares and storms are classified, and how to watch any of it safely.
What Is a Blood Moon? Why the Eclipsed Moon Turns Red
During a total lunar eclipse the full Moon doesn't go black — it turns a deep copper-red. The 'blood moon' is real physics: every sunrise and sunset on Earth, projected onto the Moon at once. Here's how it works, when the next one is, and how to watch.
How to Watch a Solar Eclipse Safely
How to watch a solar eclipse without harming your eyes: when you need certified ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses, the one brief moment totality lets you look unaided, and safe projection methods for the partial phases.
A, B, C, M, X: The Solar Flare Scale Explained
How the solar-flare classification works — the logarithmic A/B/C/M/X letters, the number after the letter, and what each level means for radio, satellites and the aurora.
Total, Annular, Partial: The Types of Solar Eclipse Explained
The difference between total, annular, partial and hybrid solar eclipses — why the Moon sometimes covers the Sun completely and sometimes leaves a 'ring of fire,' and what you'll actually see from inside and outside the path.
What Are Sunspots, and the Solar Cycle
What sunspots are, why they look dark, how they're numbered and classified, and how their rise and fall over about 11 years traces the solar cycle that governs flares and the aurora.
What Is a Solar Flare — and Should I Worry?
What a solar flare actually is, how the A/B/C/M/X scale works, what flares can and can't do to Earth, and the difference between a flare and the coronal mass ejection that drives the aurora.
What Is the Solar Wind — and Why Bz Matters
What the solar wind is, how its speed and density are measured by DSCOVR at L1, and why the magnetic-field component Bz is the single most important number for whether you'll see the aurora tonight.