NASA Solar Superhero Challenge Is An Awesome Art Contest For Your Budding Young Space Cadets

NASA's Space Place Art Challenge is a fun and creative way for kids to learn more about what lies beyond our own Earth. This month the contest is wanting young people to break out their creativeness and design their very own superhero, with a chance to be featured on the website.

There are many kids out there that have aspired as a kid to become an astronaut. Whether it was landing on the Moon and making new and exciting discoveries, or traveling to Mars to search for alien life, kids have longed to journey beyond the boundaries of Earth. NASA believes that every mission begins with a creative idea and how to explore it in a new way. So, it is giving kids a space-related situation each month to flex their creative brains with, and a chance to learn something new along the way.

This month's challenge involves our warm and friendly neighbor, the Sun. Most of us do not give any thought to the fact that we are privy to seeing at least one star when we look up into the sky, whether it be night or daytime (except on cloudy days/nights of course). The Sun is a star that has been around for about 4.5 billion years.

NASA's Parker Solar Probe actually became the first manmade spacecraft to ever "touch the Sun" back in December of last year. It was viewed as a monumental milestone, as touching the very stuff the Sun is made of will help scientists discover critical information about our closest star and its influence on the solar system.

"Parker Solar Probe 'touching the Sun' is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat," stated Thomas Zurbuchen, the Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA's Headquarters in Washington. "Not only does this milestone provide us with deeper insights into our Sun's evolution and its impacts on our solar system, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe."

Our Sun is a hot, glowing ball of gas, and its core is a sizzling 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, which is 135,000 times hotter than that frying pan you cook your bacon in. It also produces a type of weather called "space weather." Space weather can have an affect on Earth, even though the Sun is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away. And that space weather can even damage satellites and cause electrical blackouts on Earth.

With all of this info in mind, what superpowers would your superhero derive from the Sun? What would their name be? Better yet, grab your kids and ask them what they think. Have them put their creations onto paper and then snap a pic of it and send it in to the NASA Space Art Challenge, and they might just end up featured on NASA's website. Be sure to go to the website and read all the rules and then have fun!

If your child takes part in this contest by NASA, we would love to see their submissions in the comments down below. And the adults reading this want to share your thoughts on a sun-powered superhero, feel free to share those ideas as well.