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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a new space telescope whose mission is to study the Sun, rocketed into space in February and started sending back images and video a couple of weeks ago. The images on this page (and the videos they're linked to) are the observatory's "first light"; that is, its very first images. You've never seen the Sun like this, I promise.
This first image links to the main story that has several more incredible photos and even more amazing videos; take the time to let them load because, WOW. For example, this photo shows how the Sun looks in the extreme ultraviolet; the colors signify temperatures ranging from relatively "cool" red (60,000° Kelvin - cool only on the surface of a star, folks) to medium-temp oranges and yellows to hot blues and greens (over 1,000,000° K):
Click the image to see the story and lots of videos.
Here's a gosh-wow still from a video that shows, in living full-motion, a solar prominence erupting from the surface of our Sun. Gosh-wow stuff, I promise, and worth the download time to watch - and if I say that after waiting for it to download on my slow home connection, it's true:
Click the image to watch the 29MB video in a new window (will take a while to load).
I've said it before and I'll say it again: We live in amazing times. When I was in college studying astrophysics, the general consensus was that observatories and their instruments were reaching a sort of capability and power plateau. Then we launched the Hubble Space Telescope (happy 20th anniversary, Hubble!), and opinions changed. Then we started launching more space-based observatories. And now we're even building ground-based monsters that adapt to sky conditions, rivaling space-based capabilties.
Just wow.
Chris
PS: On a closer-to-home note, happy Earth Day!
Click the image to see NASA's Earth Day page.
This first image links to the main story that has several more incredible photos and even more amazing videos; take the time to let them load because, WOW. For example, this photo shows how the Sun looks in the extreme ultraviolet; the colors signify temperatures ranging from relatively "cool" red (60,000° Kelvin - cool only on the surface of a star, folks) to medium-temp oranges and yellows to hot blues and greens (over 1,000,000° K):
Click the image to see the story and lots of videos.
Here's a gosh-wow still from a video that shows, in living full-motion, a solar prominence erupting from the surface of our Sun. Gosh-wow stuff, I promise, and worth the download time to watch - and if I say that after waiting for it to download on my slow home connection, it's true:
Click the image to watch the 29MB video in a new window (will take a while to load).
I've said it before and I'll say it again: We live in amazing times. When I was in college studying astrophysics, the general consensus was that observatories and their instruments were reaching a sort of capability and power plateau. Then we launched the Hubble Space Telescope (happy 20th anniversary, Hubble!), and opinions changed. Then we started launching more space-based observatories. And now we're even building ground-based monsters that adapt to sky conditions, rivaling space-based capabilties.
Just wow.
Chris
PS: On a closer-to-home note, happy Earth Day!
Click the image to see NASA's Earth Day page.
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