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THREE YEARS AGO, NASA started to watch the sun through its Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) so its astronauts and scientists could learn more about Earth’s closest star.
The images caught by SDO reveal types of space weather, such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which impact life on Earth. The events can send radiation and solar material towards us, interfering with satellites in space on the way.
The images of the “violent dance on the sun” help NASA to understand what causes these giant explosions so it can continue in its aim to one day be able to predict space weather.
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SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. It has provided “virtually unbroken coverage” of the sun’s rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle.
The following video shows those three years of the sun at a pace of two images per day. You may notice the sun’s apparent size increases and decreases subtly. This is because the distance between the SDO spacecraft and the sun varies over time. According to NASA thought, the image is “remarkably consistent and stable” despite the fact that SDO orbits Earth at 6,876 mph and Earth orbits the sun at 67,062 mph.
The images shown here are based on a wavelength of 171 angstroms, which is in the extreme ultraviolet range and shows solar material at around 600,000 kelvins (about 1.08 million F). In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun’s 25-day rotation as well as how solar activity has increased over three years.
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I hope Leo’s bank overcharge him… see if it takes over 10 yrs to get his money back, 3 or more of which are since the “errors” were discovered. (Still waiting btw)
@Patabake Kennedy: You and me both Patacake, gas bill from 2nd Nov to15th January 478 euro, damn vat, standing charges and public service charges levy, it was freezing through Christmas, 100 euro in taxes for trying to stay warm.
@Honeybee: Ouch, and the rest of the winter to come. those auld levies don’t help either. Ah well, we are used to it by now, maybe the spring might bring a bit of relief.
@Honeybee: feeling your pain. ESB bill just in at €392 for two months because of crap storage heaters on top of my extortionate rent. Ah Leo’s republic of opportunities.
@Deborah Behan: Painful Deborah, now I know what my own electric bill will look like when it falls due in a fortnight, thank God the days are getting brighter and hopefully a little warmer so we can get a bit of respite from chronic charges for necessities,it’s bad enough trying to keep bills reasonable without the added taxes on bills , government profiting on people struggling and no amount of carbon taxes etc will make a blind bit of difference, doesn’t seem to matter which form of heating we have, it’s all too expensive, my elderly neighbours just ordered an oil fill, they said normally they would have lasted to February/March but weather has been so cold they have used it up.
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