All articles starting with S

Solar shingles

Solar shingles, also called solar roof tiles, are photovoltaic cells that look and function like conventional roofing materials while generating electricity, commercially available since 2005 and costing 60 to 190 percent more than solar panels.

Solar sibling

A solar sibling is a star thought to have formed alongside the Sun in the same birth cluster from the same molecular cloud about 4.6 billion years ago.

Solar Star

Solar Star, formerly Antelope Valley Solar Projects, is a 579 MW photovoltaic power plant near Rosamond, California, the world's largest when completed in June 2015.

Solar still

A solar still, a form of solar distillation, is a device that purifies saline or contaminated water using only sunlight, collecting condensed vapor as fresh water.

Solar storm of 2015 March

The solar storm of March 2015, known as the St. Patrick's Day storm, was a severe G4 geomagnetic storm that struck Earth on 17 March 2015.

Solar System

The Solar System, also called our solar system, is the Sun and everything orbiting it: eight planets, hundreds of moons, and billions of smaller bodies.

Solar System Ambassadors

Solar System Ambassadors is a NASA volunteer program run by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in which enthusiasts nationwide give free public talks about space missions.

Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute

The Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) is a NASA institute funding multi-institutional research on the Moon, near-Earth asteroids, and the moons of Mars.

Solar System in fiction

Solar System in fiction: real planets, moons, and asteroids as science-fiction settings, from Kircher's 1656 Grand Tour and Verne's 1865 Moon cannon through Heinlein's golden-age future history and the post-probe shift to interstellar settings.

Solar telescope

A solar telescope is an optical telescope specialized for observing the Sun, managing intense heat and light while resolving fine structure in the solar atmosphere.

Solar thermal collector

A solar thermal collector, or solar heat collector, is a device that converts sunlight into useful heat for hot water, space heating, and industrial processes.

Solar thermal energy

Solar thermal energy, also called solar thermal electric power, is heat captured from sunlight, used for water heaters, industry, and concentrating power plants, unlike photovoltaics.

Solar thermochemical carbon dioxide splitting

Solar thermochemical carbon dioxide splitting is a two-step redox process in which concentrated sunlight drives a metal oxide to split CO2 into carbon monoxide and oxygen without electricity.

Solar thermochemical fuel production

Solar thermochemical fuel production uses concentrated sunlight to split water and CO2 into hydrogen or syngas, which can be converted into drop-in fuels like kerosene.

Solar thermochemical hydrogen production

Solar thermochemical hydrogen production (STCH, also called solar thermal water splitting) makes hydrogen with heat from concentrated sunlight, cycling metal oxides between reduction and steam re-oxidation to split water.

Solar thermophotovoltaic system

A solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) system converts sunlight to electricity via a heated intermediate emitter, whose thermal radiation a photovoltaic cell converts, reshaping the spectrum to cut losses.

Solar Throat Slashed

Solar Throat Slashed (French: Soleil cou coupé) is a 1948 collection of 72 poems by the Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, published in Paris by K éditeur.

Solar time

Solar time, also called sun time, is timekeeping based on the Sun's position, in apparent form, which a sundial reads, and mean form, which underlies modern civil time zones.

Solar tracker

A solar tracker is a mounting system that orients PV panels toward the sun as it moves, increasing energy yield by up to 27 percent over fixed arrays.

Solar Two

Solar Two was a 10-megawatt experimental solar power tower plant east of Barstow, California, that operated from 1996 to 1999 using molten nitrate salt for heat storage.

Oct 21, 2026

Solar urticaria

Solar urticaria, a rare chronic inducible urticaria and photodermatosis, causes itching wheals within minutes of UV or visible light exposure; treated with antihistamines, phototherapy, and omalizumab.

Solar water disinfection

Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is a household water treatment method in which contaminated water in transparent PET bottles is exposed to sunlight for at least 6 hours, inactivating pathogens.

Solar water disinfection system

A solar water disinfection system uses sunlight to inactivate drinking water pathogens through ultraviolet radiation, heat, or both, in regions without reliable treated water supplies.

Solar water heating

Solar water heating (SWH), also called a solar hot water system, uses solar thermal collectors to heat water for domestic, pool, or industrial use, usually with a storage tank and backup heater.

Solar wind

The solar wind is a continuous supersonic outflow of charged particles from the Sun's corona, predicted by Eugene Parker in 1958 and first measured by spacecraft in 1959.

Solar wind switchbacks

Solar wind switchbacks are sudden, S-shaped reversals in the solar wind's magnetic field, first seen by Ulysses in the 1990s and found common near the Sun by Parker Solar Probe.

Solar wind termination shock

The solar wind termination shock is the boundary in the outer Solar System where the supersonic solar wind abruptly slows, crossed by Voyager 1 in 2004.

Solar zenith angle

The solar zenith angle is the angle between the Sun and the local vertical (the zenith); it is 0° when the Sun is overhead and 90° at the horizon.

Solar-like oscillations

Solar-like oscillations are acoustic modes in stars stochastically driven by turbulent convection, like the Sun's; two measured numbers yield a star's mass, radius, and age, making them a workhorse of asteroseismology.