WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:04.190 [reporter] Well NASA is celebrating 20 years of studying the Sun. 2 00:00:04.190 --> 00:00:08.210 Today is the 20th Anniversary of NASA's 3 00:00:08.210 --> 00:00:12.220 SOHO Mission and here to tell us more about it from NASA's Goddard Space 4 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:16.230 Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland is NASA Scientist Doctor Alex Young. 5 00:00:16.230 --> 00:00:20.250 Thank you for joining us. [Dr. Young] Thank You it's my pleasure. 6 00:00:20.250 --> 00:00:24.450 [reporter] So, How has SOHO changed our understanding of the Sun and Solar System? 7 00:00:24.450 --> 00:00:28.460 [Dr. Young] Well SOHO has given us this first look at the 8 00:00:28.460 --> 00:00:32.640 Sun both at a holistic picture as well as all the detail 9 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:36.650 that are happening and this global view we've been able to 10 00:00:36.650 --> 00:00:40.670 look inside of the Sun as well as seeing this incredible 11 00:00:40.670 --> 00:00:44.680 dynamic phenomena happening on the surface as well as 12 00:00:44.680 --> 00:00:48.760 things lifting off and exploding into space 13 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:52.770 filling our entire solar system and this is something we have never done 14 00:00:52.770 --> 00:00:56.790 before with such amazing, amazing detail with such a 15 00:00:56.790 --> 00:01:00.800 huge suite of all these amazing scientific instrumentation. 16 00:01:00.800 --> 00:01:04.810 [reporter] cool. now we heard that SOHO was almost lost 17 00:01:04.810 --> 00:01:09.010 in space. Could you tell us what happen? [Dr. Young] Yeah, so not long after 18 00:01:09.010 --> 00:01:13.200 the mission began, during a normal maneuvers 19 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:17.370 scientists and engineers lost contact with the spacecraft, but 20 00:01:17.370 --> 00:01:21.550 fortunately you have this incredibly smart 21 00:01:21.550 --> 00:01:25.670 and ingenious team of scientists and engineers 22 00:01:25.670 --> 00:01:29.690 who work really hard over several months and 23 00:01:29.690 --> 00:01:33.700 what was almost a heroic level of effort 24 00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:37.710 they were able to recover the spacecraft and 25 00:01:37.710 --> 00:01:41.890 keep it going and now we've had it for 20 years. 26 00:01:41.890 --> 00:01:45.940 [reporter] Wow, Now why does NASA study the Sun? 27 00:01:45.940 --> 00:01:49.940 [Dr. Young] Well, in addition to just being the 28 00:01:49.940 --> 00:01:53.950 this center of the solar system that's driving all of the heat and light 29 00:01:53.950 --> 00:01:57.950 which is important to us. The Sun is constantly throwing off huge 30 00:01:57.950 --> 00:02:01.960 amounts of energy and material and this stuff travels through the 31 00:02:01.960 --> 00:02:05.980 solar system and it can impact the Earth. It can produce beautiful 32 00:02:05.980 --> 00:02:10.000 phenomenon like aurora but it can also impact our 33 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 technology, our communications our satellites and even our 34 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.020 power grids. So it's really important that we understand both 35 00:02:18.020 --> 00:02:22.030 the beginnings and origins of this as well how to one day 36 00:02:22.030 --> 00:02:26.050 forecast it just like we do here with 37 00:02:26.050 --> 00:02:30.050 weather on Earth and we are getting close to that right now. 38 00:02:30.050 --> 00:02:34.140 [reporter] Well the SOHO mission lasted much longer than planned. How is it 39 00:02:34.140 --> 00:02:38.150 still being used today? [Dr. Young] Well right now, SOHO 40 00:02:38.150 --> 00:02:42.280 is the first operational spacecraft 41 00:02:42.280 --> 00:02:46.290 space weather instrument. This is in particular is called 42 00:02:46.290 --> 00:02:50.300 a chronograph, this is a telescope that creates an artificial 43 00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:54.320 eclipse and allows us to block out the bright Sun and see 44 00:02:54.320 --> 00:02:58.340 the outer part of the solar atmosphere, we can see all of this 45 00:02:58.340 --> 00:03:02.350 amazing matter blasting out. As a matter of fact we've even 46 00:03:02.350 --> 00:03:06.370 been able to study over 3 thousand comets 47 00:03:06.370 --> 00:03:10.380 which not something that the mission was originally designed for. 48 00:03:10.380 --> 00:03:14.390 [reporter] Great, now where can we go to learn more? 49 00:03:14.390 --> 00:03:18.410 [Dr. Young] You can go find out more at NASA.gov/sunearth 50 00:03:18.410 --> 00:03:22.590 and you can also check us out at Twitter 51 00:03:22.590 --> 00:03:26.600 @NASASunEarth [reporter] Great, Dr. Alex Young 52 00:03:26.600 --> 00:03:29.543 thank you so much for joining us. [Dr. Young] Thank You.