atmosphere: The envelope of gases surrounding Earth, another planet or a moon.
corona: An adjective that refers to crown, as in crown-shaped viruses known as coronaviruses. (in astronomy) The outermost layer of the atmosphere surrounding the sun (and other stars). The sun’s corona is normally visible only during a total solar eclipse, when it is seen as an irregularly shaped, pearly glow surrounding the darkened disk of the moon.
coronal mass ejections: The powerful release of huge bubbles of gas threaded with magnetic field lines. These can be spew from the sun over a span of hours. They can accompany solar flares, but usually do not.
ejection: A sudden or forceful removal or jettisoning of something from its position, container or housing.
magnetic field: An area of influence created by certain materials, called magnets, or by the movement of electric charges.
mass: A number that shows how much an object resists speeding up and slowing down — basically a measure of how much matter that object is made from.
orbiter: A spacecraft designed to go into orbit, especially one not intended to land.
solar: Having to do with the sun or the radiation it emits. It comes from sol, Latin for sun.
solar flare: An explosive event that takes place on the sun when energy that has built up in 'twisted' magnetic fields (usually above sunspots) becomes suddenly released. The energy can in minutes heat to many millions of degrees, emitting a burst of energy. That energy consists of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma rays to radio waves.
sun: The star at the center of Earth’s solar system. It is about 27,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Also a term for any sunlike star.
ultraviolet: A portion of the light spectrum that is close to violet but invisible to the human eye.
ultraviolet light: A type of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength from 10 nanometers to 380 nanometers. The wavelengths are shorter than that of visible light but longer than X-rays.