The Sun is the star of the Solar System and makes life on Earth possible. But it's also a danger to our technological civilization. Learn all about our fascinating star in the beautifully illustrated “Our Explosive Sun.”

Our Explosive Sun - book review

Charged particles from the Sun caused a Valentine's Day magnetic storm and some beautiful aurorae for those lucky enough to be in high latitudes. PÃ¥l Brekke discusses this in his book.

The storm was recorded by the Polar Light Center, Lofoten, Norway

I've just come across a northern lights with moonlight by Fredrik Broms. It made me smile, because PÃ¥l Brekke's book gives the usual advice about avoiding bright moonlight for aurora-watching.

But Hurtigruten - Seeing the Northern Lights tells about my experience of aurora-watching by moonlight.

This video of the Sun is really beautiful. If you don't watch the whole thing (4 mins) be sure to watch the first minute and a half because it shows the activity developing & they show the size of it compared to Earth. It's a lot bigger than we are!

The Sun 2012-07-09 by the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

This video is made of images taken by the orbiting SDO on July 9 last year. One second in the video is about 6 minutes. It includes all the exciting stuff the Sun does: solar flare, a coronal mass ejection (CME), and structures that loop into the Sun's corona as the magnetic field lines change.