Our beautiful Sun

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched on February 11, 2010, is a highly advanced spacecraft designed to study the sun comprehensively. Over its five-year mission, SDO aims to analyze the sun's atmosphere, magnetic field, and its impact on Earth's atmospheric chemistry and climate. With image resolution surpassing high-definition television by 8 times, SDO produces more than a terabyte of data daily. Notably, on June 5, 2012, SDO captured images of a rare solar event: the transit of Venus across the sun's surface. This event occurs in pairs every eight years, with separations of 105 or 121 years between pairs. The previous transit was in 2004, and the next is expected in 2117. The images and videos represent different wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light and a segment of the visible spectrum. The red sun represents 304 angstrom ultraviolet, the golden sun is 171 angstrom, the magenta sun is 1700 angstrom, and the orange sun represents filtered visible light. The 304 and 171 wavelengths reveal the sun's atmosphere, which is not visible in the standard visible spectrum.