Solar Physics Historical Timeline

1223 BC - 200 BC

1223 BC
The oldest eclipse record

800 BC
The first plausible recorded sunspot observation

350 BC
Sun circling under a sheltering sky

200 BC
The distance to the Sun

0 - AD 1599

AD 968
The first mention of the solar corona

1128
The first sunspot drawing

1185
The first description of solar prominences

1543
The Sun moves to center stage

1600 - 1799

1609
The Sun in focus

1610
First telescopic observations of sunspots

1644
The Sun as a star

1645-1715
Sunspots vanish

1687
The mass of the Sun

1774-1801
The physical nature of sunspots

1796
The nebular hypothesis

1800 - 1999

1800
The Sun's invisible radiation

1802
Black lines in the Sun

1817
Solar spectroscopy is born

1838
The solar constant

1843
The sunspot cycle

1845
The first solar photograph

1848
The sunspot number

1852
Sunspot cycle linked to geomagnetic activity

1858
The solar differential rotation

1859
First observation of a solar flare

1859
The chemical composition of the Sun

1860
First observations of a coronal mass ejection

1881
The solar constant, again

1908
The magnetic nature of sunspots

1919
The Sun's magnetic cycle

1931
The coronagraph

2000 - present

Section content coming soon.

Sort text

00

Category

solar-physics-timeline