Sun  ID: 11749

Sun Watcher

Story by Karen Fox | Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on February 19, 2015
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For more than five years, a NASA spacecraft has recorded the sun’s every move.
On February 11, 2015, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, spacecraft marked five years in space. Since its launch in 2010, SDO has provided incredibly detailed views of the sun 24 hours a day, capturing an image almost once every second. Through its constant surveillance, scientists have gotten an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massive explosions on the sun grow and erupt. Today, the spacecraft continues to send back tantalizing imagery that incites scientists' curiosity. By monitoring the sun in different wavelengths of light, researchers can observe how material courses through the sun’s atmosphere. Such observations hold clues to some of the sun’s deepest mysteries, like what causes solar eruptions, and why the sun's magnetic fields are constantly on the move. Watch the video to see highlights from the spacecraft’s past five years of sun watching.
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See some highlights of the solar views captured by SDO since 2010 in this video.
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Each day SDO takes thousands of images that show how solar material sways and sometimes erupts in the sun’s atmosphere.
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SDO monitors giant magnetic fields that soar through the sun to record changes in solar activity.
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Since its launch, SDO has captured more than 200 million images of the sun.
 

Related Story

SDO: Year 5

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Lead Visualizer/Animator:
Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Lead Producer:
Scott Wiessinger (USRA)

Lead Writer:
Karen Fox (ADNET Systems, Inc.)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Cover image courtesy of NASA/SDO/Pesnell

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11749

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Sun