Sun Produces Sparkling Flare on May 19, 2022
Video of the May 19th M5.6 solar flare captured by SDO in 171 angstrom light. This view shows the full solar disk and an inset focusing on the region where the flare occured. On May 19, 2022 the Sun emitted a magnitude M5.6 flare that peaked at 3:19 EDT. This flare was unusual in that it was not a single, bright burst from one location, but a series of smaller flashes from all over a bright active region. The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the event in extreme ultraviolet light which reveals the delicate structure of the Sun's lower atmosphere, called the corona. The sparkling flares are followed by brilliant loops of hot plasma, which "sticks" to the Sun's magnetic fields. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13425 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center • Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard • Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard • Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC • Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc
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A Decade of Sun
As of June 2020, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory — SDO — has now been watching the Sun non-stop for over a full decade. From its orbit in space around the Earth, SDO has gathered 425 million high-resolution images of the Sun, amassing 20,000,000 gigabytes of data over the past ten years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system.
With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 10-year time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer the corona. Compiling one photo every hour, the movie condenses a decade of the Sun into 61 minutes. The video shows the rise and fall in activity that occurs as part of the Sun’s 11-year solar cycle and notable events, like transiting planets and eruptions. The custom music, titled “Solar Observer,” was composed by musician Lars Leonhard.
While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed towards the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. The dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. A longer blackout in 2016 was caused by a temporary issue with the AIA instrument that was successfully resolved after a week. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments.
SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe. Music: "Solar Observer" written and produced for this video by Lars Leonhard. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13425 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center • Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard • Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard • Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC • Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc
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133 Days on the Sun
This video chronicles solar activity from August 12 to December 22, 2022, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO . From its orbit in space around Earth, SDO has steadily imaged the Sun in 4K x 4K resolution for nearly 13 years. This information has enabled countless new discoveries about the workings of our closest star and how it influences the solar system.
With a triad of instruments, SDO captures an image of the Sun every 0.75 seconds. The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument alone captures images every 12 seconds at 10 different wavelengths of light. This 133-day time lapse showcases photos taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometers, which is an extreme- ultraviolet wavelength that shows the Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer: the corona. Compiling images taken 108 seconds apart, the movie condenses 133 days, or about four months, of solar observations into 59 minutes. The video shows bright active regions passing across the face of the Sun as it rotates. The Sun rotates approximately once every 27 days. The loops extending above the bright regions are magnetic fields that have trapped hot, glowing plasma. These bright regions are also the source of solar flares, which appear as bright flashes as magnetic fields snap together in a process called magnetic reconnection.
While SDO has kept an unblinking eye pointed toward the Sun, there have been a few moments it missed. Some of the dark frames in the video are caused by Earth or the Moon eclipsing SDO as they pass between the spacecraft and the Sun. Other blackouts are caused by instrumentation being down or data errors. SDO transmits 1.4 terabytes of data to the ground every day. The images where the Sun is off-center were observed when SDO was calibrating its instruments.
SDO and other NASA missions will continue to watch our Sun in the years to come, providing further insights about our place in space and information to keep our astronauts and assets safe.
The music is a continuous mix from Lars Leonhard’s “Geometric Shapes” album, courtesy of the artist. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13425 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center • Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard • Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard • Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC • Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc
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OSIRIS-REx Mission Design Narrated Feature
OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. Its goal is to explore near-Earth asteroid Bennu, a remnant from the dawn of the solar system, and to return a sample of Bennu to Earth. OSIRIS-REx launched on September 8, 2016, and arrived at asteroid Bennu on December 3, 2018. The spacecraft is spending more than a year surveying and mapping Bennu before collecting a sample, ensuring that it can safely descend to the asteroid’s surface and retrieve a sample of high science value.
This video illustrates the OSIRIS-REx mission design in detail, through artist concept animations, data visualizations, launch footage, and imagery from the spacecraft itself. Each phase of the mission is depicted, from launch through sample return, providing an in-depth look at this journey to Bennu and back. Music provided by Killer Tracks: Electric Cosmos, Inducing Waves, Newfound Lands, Crystal Sound Bath, Imperatum This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13425 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Dan Gallagher If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc
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From the Moon to the Earth - 4K
This visualization flies the virtual camera from the far side of the Moon, beneath the lunar South Pole, and onward to Earth. The heavily cratered lunar far side includes the dark basalt of Mare Moscoviense (top left) and Tsiolkovskiy crater (far left) and the darkened expanse of the ancient South Pole-Aitken basin (bottom). The striking blue of the Earth's oceans is initially hidden from view by the looming Moon. This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13425 NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC)/David Ladd If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc
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Active October Sun Emits X-class Flare
he Sun emitted a significant solar flare peaking at 11:35 a.m. EDT on Oct. 28, 2021. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event.
Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
To see how such space weather may affect Earth, please visit NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center http://spaceweather.gov/, the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts. NASA works as the research arm of the nation’s space weather effort. NASA observes the Sun and our space environment constantly with a fleet of spacecraft that study everything from the Sun’s activity to the solar atmosphere, and to the particles and magnetic fields in the space surrounding Earth.
This flare is classified as an X1.0-class flare.
X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc. Flares that are classified X10 or stronger are considered unusually intense.
Earlier in the week, from late-afternoon on October 25th through mid-morning on the 26th, a different active region on the Sun gave a show of small flares and eruptions of plasma. Music: "Immersion" from Above and Below. Written and produced by Lars Leonhard This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13425 NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/NASAExplorer Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASA.GSFC · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc
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