Watch This: Solar Prominence Achieves Liftoff
And we have liftoff! The Solar Dynamics Observatory has been providing images and video of some beautiful prominences and filaments over the past few days, and today the spacecraft captured a large...
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Peekaboo Sun: SDO’s Eclipse Season
Now you see it, now you don’t! Around the solstices, the Solar Dynamics Observatory ends up having an “eclipse season,” where the Sun, Earth, and the SDO line up, and some of the images and video sent...
View ArticleDisco Sun: X-Class Flare Creates Strobe-Light Effect
An active region just turning into view on the left side of the Sun has emitted three large flares since Saturday: an M9, an M5 and early today blasted out an X1.8 class flare. This flare occurred...
View ArticleSDO’s Camilla the Rubber Chicken: Cure for a Common Phobia
We at Universe Today really appreciate the work that Camilla the Rubber Chicken does in her role of education and public outreach. This new video from NASA explains why many people agree that she puts...
View ArticleStunning Compilation of the Solar Dynamic Observatory’s Observations
Three years ago today, (February 11, 2010) I was standing at Kennedy Space Center watching the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The launch was spectacular, and included a unique effect as the...
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Astrophoto: Giant Sunspot Group on the Sun
Sunspot 1678 in Hydrogen alpha light, taken on February 19, 2013. Credit and copyright: Paul Andrew. On February 19 and 20, 2013, scientists watched a giant sunspot form in under 48 hours. It has grown...
View ArticleSolar Spacecraft Gets a Little Loopy
Twice a year, the Solar Dynamics Observatory performs a 360-degree roll about the axis on which it points toward the Sun. This produces some unique views, but the rolls are necessary to help calibrate...
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Weekend Aurora Alert: The Sun Lets Loose an Earth-Directed CME
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an M6.5 class flare at 3:16 EDT on April 11, 2013. This image shows a combination of light in wavelengths of 131 and 171 Angstroms. Credit:...
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3 Years of the Sun in 3 Minutes
This image is a composite of 25 separate images spanning the period of April 16, 2012, to April 15, 2013. It uses the SDO AIA wavelength of 171 angstroms and reveals the zones on the sun where active...
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The Most Unique Eclipse Image You’ll Ever See
This is an image of a unique eclipse as viewed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, with a model of the moon from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter replacing the lunar shadow. Credit:...
View ArticleA Mesmerizing Look at Year 4 of the Solar Dynamics Observatory
Four years ago today, the Solar Dynamics Observatory embarked on a five-year mission to boldly go where no Sun-observing satellite has gone before. SDO uses its three instruments to look constantly at...
View ArticleWatch Mercury Transit the Sun in Multiple Wavelengths
On May 9, 2016, Mercury passed directly between the Sun and Earth. No one had a better view of the event than the space-based Solar Dynamics Observatory, as it had a completely unobstructed view of the...
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X-Rays Are Coming From The Dark Side of Venus
Venus and Mercury have been observed transiting the Sun many times over the past few centuries. When these planets are seen passing between the Sun and the Earth, opportunities exist for some great...
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Satellites Watched Mercury’s Transit From Space, Confirming That Yes, the Sun...
Do you wonder how astronomers find all those exoplanets orbiting stars in distant solar systems? Mostly they use the transit method. When a planet travels in between its star and an observer, the...
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Time-Lapse Video Reveals 10 Years of the Sun’s Life Crushed into One Stellar...
I forget the Sun is a star. I think we all do sometimes. It’s easy to take for granted. The Sun is that glowing thing that rises in the morning and sets in the evening that we don’t generally pay...
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New Solar Model Successfully Predicted Seven of the Sun’s Last Nine Big Flares
Since it launched in 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory has helped scientists understand how the Sun’s magnetic field is generated and structured, and what causes solar flares. One of the main goals...
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133 Days of the Sun’s Glory
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released an hour-long time-lapse video that shows 133 days of the Sun’s life. The video shows the Sun’s chaotic surface, where great loops of plasma arch above...
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Astronomers See Flashes on the Sun That Could be a Sign of an Upcoming Flare
Using data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, scientists have discovered new clues that could help predict when and where the next solar flare might blast from the Sun. Researchers were able to...
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Images From Three Telescopes Merged Into One Spectacular Picture of the Sun
You’ve probably never seen our Sun look like this before. This bizarre image of old Sol is made from data produced by three different space telescopes, each observing the Sun at a different...
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Solar Orbiter Continues to Get Closer to the Sun, Revealing More and More...
On April 10th, ESA’s Solar Orbiter made its closest flyby of the Sun, coming to within just 29% of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. From this vantage point, the spacecraft is performing...
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