NASA | SDO: Year 5 | Five years for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory | Best Video Images
Credits:
NASA'
s Goddard Space Flight Center
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSVv40M2aks
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February 11,
2015 marks five years in space for NASA's
Solar Dynamics Observatory, which provides incredibly detailed images of the whole sun
24 hours a day. Capturing an image more than once per second,
SDO has provided an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massive explosions on the sun grow and erupt ever since its launch on Feb. 11,
2010. The imagery is also captivating, allowing one to watch the constant ballet of solar material through the sun's atmosphere, the corona.
In honor of SDO's fifth anniversary, NASA has released a video showcasing highlights from the last five years of sun watching.
Watch the movie to see giant clouds of solar material hurled out into space, the dance of giant loops hovering in the corona, and huge sunspots growing and shrinking on the sun's surface.
The imagery is an example of the kind of data that SDO provides to scientists. By watching the sun in different wavelengths – and therefore different temperatures – scientists can watch how material courses through the corona, which holds clues to what causes eruptions on the sun, what heats the sun's atmosphere up to 1,000 times hotter than its surface, and why the sun's magnetic fields are constantly on the move.
Five years into its mission, SDO continues to send back tantalizing imagery to incite scientists' curiosity. For example, in late 2014, SDO captured imagery of the largest sun spots seen since
1995 as well as a torrent of intense solar flares.
Solar flares are bursts of light, energy and X-rays. They can occur by themselves or can be accompanied by what's called a coronal mass ejection, or
CME, in which a giant cloud of solar material erupts off the sun, achieves escape velocity and heads off into space. In this case, the sun produced only flares and no CMEs, which, while not unheard of, is somewhat unusual for flares of that size.
Scientists are looking at that data now to see if they can determine what circumstances might have led to flares eruptions alone.
Goddard built, operates and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in
Washington, D.C. SDO is the first mission of NASA's
Living with a Star Program.
The program's goal is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to address those aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect our lives and society.
The incredible video that reveals five YEARS of
Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory watching the sun
Time-lapse video captures one frame every 8 hours starting when data became available in June 2010
Shows vast filaments of material snakiong across sun's surface, along with excplosions
Stretched out, that line – or solar filament as scientists call it – would be more than 533,000 miles long. It has produced some of the most stunning images ever seen, and revealed the terrifying world on the surface of our sun.
Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched five years ago today - and its greatest hits have been edited into a four minute video.
It reveals everything from giant sunspots erupting to giant filaments constantly flailing. Five years of the sun in three minutes
To celebrate the work being done by its Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA has released a video of highlights on the fifth anniversary of its launch. On February 11, 2010, NASA launched its Solar Dynamics Observatory -- a spacecraft equipped with sensors, cameras and telescopes all with one mission: an in-depth examination of the star at the centre of our solar system -- the sun. Since that time, the SDO has been capturing one image almost every second, providing an unprecedented level of insight into the sun's activity -- over
200 million images and 2,600 terabytes of data. Over 2,000 scientific papers have been published based on the observations of the SDO, and even today, it continues to send back vital and fascinating information about the sun.
Solar flares, coronal mass ejections, sunspots, eruptions; the imaging equipment on the observatory has allowed researchers to see how these evolve and what causes them.
Photographs in different wavelengths have allowed researchers to study the sun's plasma, temperatures, magnetic fields and activity, and atmosphere and corona.
The Sun's 'beautiful ballet' has been captured on film in a video showcasing the wonders of what goes on in space
.
In the five-year time-lapse video, which Nasa describes as showing the "constant ballet of solar material" in space, the magic of clouds of solar material being hurled into the atmosphere, torrents of intense solar flares sending out bursts of light, and even the growing and shrinking of sunspots can be seen in action.
Las mejores imágenes del observatorio solar de la nasa en sus cinco años.
NASA | SDO: Year 5 | Five years for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory |
Best Video Images