At any moment, the predictions of your local weather forecaster might be suddenly superseded by space weather, a special breed of storms fomented on the Sun and launched toward Earth with potentially devastating consequences.

Most of the time, the solar wind billowing out from the Sun blows right past our planet without causing any ill effects whatsoever, but today, with our navigation and communications technology dependent on satellite based systems, a downdraft of space weather could disrupt entire countries.

Dava Sobel turns to Aditya L1, a new satellite under construction in India, to learn how many countries are developing their own eyes to watch the sun from space.

To know the Sun is an age-old dream of humankind. For centuries, astronomers contented themselves with analysing small sips of sunlight collected through specialised instruments. They chased after eclipses that exposed otherwise hidden layers of the Sun’s substance, and they launched Earth and Sun-orbiting observatories to monitor our star from space. Today, several satellites ‘watch’ our star from outer space. In August 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, set off on a mission to go so far as to ‘touch the sun’ for the first time.

In five programmes, author Dava Sobel orbits the sun, getting as close as she dares, to understand the immense relationship we have with our nearest star.

Music composed by Chris O'Shaughnessy.

Audio for this programme was updated on 21 September 2020.

(Photo: An M9-class solar flare erupting on the Sun's northeastern hemisphere. Credit: Nasa/Solar Dynamics Observatory via AFP/Getty Images)