The ozone layer protects living things on the Earth's surface from the Sun's ultra-violet radiation.

BBC: Ill wind 'killed dinosaurs'

Certain elements on the surface emitted X-rays when the sun zapped Eros with an intense burst of radiation for 30 minutes on May 4.

CNN: Asteroid Eros resembles 'building blocks' of Earth

The first, solar-radiation management, focusses on reducing the impact of the sun.

NEWYORKER: The Climate Fixers

Solar energy can, of course, be gathered on Earth, but only about half of the sun's radiation ever makes it to the Earth's surface--the rest is either absorbed by the atmosphere or reflected back by clouds.

FORBES: Galactic Gold Mine?

The basic concept is the same as that underpinning the "white roads" idea -- the development of a technology that can reflect a proportion of the sun's radiation away from the earth's surface and back out into space, thereby cooling the atmosphere and slowing, or even reversing the damaging effects of global climate change.

CNN: The shield of Ra: Could solar reflection save the planet?

The Sun's magnetic field and solar wind - mainly in the form of electrons and protons coming out of the Sun - protects the entire Solar System by acting as a sort of shield from cosmic rays (very energetic particles and radiation from outer space).

BBC: Viewpoint: The Sun and climate change