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Helio and You

This article series for educators aims to engage learners of all ages with the exciting world of solar science. Our goal is to help educators inspire students by connecting informal and classroom learning to real NASA events, mission launches, and historic heliophysics milestones.

Quick Facts

Use these articles to inspire learners and find more resources that cultivate learning and engagement with heliophysics.

Use these articles to inspire learners and find more resources that cultivate learning and engagement with heliophysics.

Bring NASA into Your Classroom! The articles found below are organized by their year of release, with the most recent editions to the left and older editions to the right.

Bring NASA into Your Classroom! The articles found below are organized by their year of release, with the most recent editions to the left and older editions to the right.

Past topics offer diverse learning opportunities for students, including the application of heliophysics to Lunar missions like Artemis and Apollo and the relationship between studying comets and understanding the Sun.

Past topics offer diverse learning opportunities for students, including the application of heliophysics to Lunar missions like Artemis and Apollo and the relationship between studying comets and understanding the Sun.
June 2026

Learning About the Sun in the Far North

Alaska experiences a wide range of extreme conditions, and with that comes the chance to conduct science vital to understanding the Sun-Earth system, including launching sounding rockets to study solar flares, auroras, and other phenomena.

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The northern lights were seen over Alaska the night of Feb. 16, 2017 at the the Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks. Credit: NASA/Terry Zaperach
Of all the many places to study the Sun, there is perhaps none in the United States that experiences seasonal changes or weather quite so extreme as Alaska. But there are a number of benefits to conducting studies of the Sun, space weather, and their overall impact on the rest of the solar system, including Earth, from Alaska.
Credit: NASA/Terry Zaperach

Past Topics

Browse NASA's previously published articles exploring the Sun, space weather, and their effects on Earth and the solar system, featuring current science topics and a list of relevant classroom and event-ready resources.

NASA's Mars Global Surveyor shows that although dust storms occur year-round on Mars, they often occur in greater numbers during certain seasons.

May 2025: Seasons on Earth, Mars, and Beyond

This article explores the relationship between stars and the seasons experienced by the planets which orbit them. Connected to educational resources that help K-12+ teachers explain seasonal changes and related concepts in simple, engaging ways for students.

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An image shows a circular view of the sky, colored gold, around the Sun. A black circular disk blocks the Sun at the center, but a small yellow circle shows the size and location of the Sun within the black disk. Near the top, a bulb-shaped cloud, a coronal mass ejection, extends upward from the Sun.

April 2026: The Sun, Solar Wind, and Earth as a Connected System

This article explains the PUNCH mission, which studies the relationship between the Sun and the heliosphere. Connected to resources that help K-12+ teachers explain concepts in simple, engaging ways for students.

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At the center of the image is a comet that appears as a teardrop-shaped bluish cocoon of dust coming off the comet’s solid, icy nucleus and seen against a black background. The comet appears to be heading to the bottom left corner of the image. About a dozen short, light blue diagonal streaks are seen scattered across the image, which are from background stars that appeared to move during the exposure because the telescope was tracking the moving comet.

December 2025: Comets, the Sun, and You

This article shows how studying comets can teach us more about the Sun and Space Weather. Connected to educational resources that help K-12+ teachers explain solar wind and space science concepts in simple, engaging ways for students.

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A standing woman explains a hand-drawn arts and crafts version of the Sun to a classroom filled with seated people who are all turned to face her.

September 2025: The Sun and Our Lives

This article shows the unique connections between heliophysics and our everyday lives, and how NASA explains them to the public. Connected to educational resources that help K-12+ teachers explain heliophysics education in simple, engaging ways for students.

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An illustration of two astronauts working on the Moon

August 2025: The Moon as a Laboratory

This article shows how studying the Sun can and has supported Lunar exploration, and vice versa. Connected to educational resources that help K-12+ teachers explain the link between Planetary Science and Heliophysics in simple, engaging ways for students.

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NASA's Parker Solar Probe - with its heat shield facing forward and twin solar panels partially extended - flies through particles in space.

July 2025: Two Stars in Solar Science

This article explores how the Parker Solar Probe & Solar Orbiter work together to learn about the Sun. Connected to educational resources that help K-12+ teachers explain how multinational space missions can work together to teach us about the Sun.

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A grayscale top-down image of the North Pole showing the glowing band of the Northern Lights circling the Earth

May 2025: The Sun and the Light Shows It Creates

This article uses the May 2024 solar storms to explain how the Sun causes auroras. Connected to resources that help K-12+ teachers explain this part of the Earth-Sun relationship in simple, engaging ways for students.

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Coming Soon to "Helio and You"

A black and white photograph of a man in a wide-brimmed hat scanning the distant horizon with binoculars from a rocky outcropping on the edge of a mountain peak.
American astronomer George Ellery Hale surveys the area around Mount Wilson, California for the site of a future observatory (circa 1904).
Credit: Mount Wilson Observatory

In the July edition of "Helio and You," we will cover the history of heliophysics in America, as told through the lens of America's 250th birthday and the continuum of science as a whole, and as seen from the perspective of George Ellery Hale (pictured above), who pioneered much of what we know of heliophysics today.

Framework for Heliophysics Education

Heliophysics Resource Database

Find related educational and outreach resources in our database.

Resource Database
In this animated GIF, a small portion of the Sun appears green. A bright white flash suddenly appears on the edge of the Sun.
On Nov. 4, 2003, this solar flare saturated the X-ray detectors on several Sun-observing spacecraft.
NASA/ESA/SOHO