Nasa's Sun Shots - nbr

[cam@nsmb.com]

I think I'm going to get one of these.

NASA Releases Hi-Def Images of the Sun
Updated: Friday, 23 Apr 2010, 1:07 PM EDT
Published : Friday, 23 Apr 2010, 1:07 PM EDT

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - Researchers at NASA have broken new ground, releasing never-before-seen high definition images with clarity 10 times better than HD television of the sun from a new spacecraft on Earth Day.



For the first time ever scientists are able to study the sun in its full effect and new technologies are bringing a new understanding of how solar activities affect the Earth and climate change.

"These amazing images, which show our dynamic sun in a new level of detail, are only the beginning of SDO's contribution to our understanding of the sun," said Solar Dynamics Observatory project scientist Dean Pesnell.



The most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study "our closest star" the sun examining its magnetic field as well as the role it plays in the Earth's climate and space weather events to date launched to begin a five year mission on February 11 this year.

According to the BBC , the craft has four amazing cameras that take a look at the sun layer by layer, thrilling scientists worldwide.



The mission is already being followed by almost 4,000 people on Twitter, full of new early images of the sun and interesting facts about how they were taken without an image stabilization device turned on yet.

The New York Times reports that the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly is a series of four telescopes that peer deep into the sun in varying wavelengths, snapping photos of different colors.

"A wide range of temperatures and will answer important questions about the temperature and energy structure of the sun's atmosphere," NASA said in a statement.

Getting more information about solar flares will in turn help determine how they damage communication satellites and temporarily knock out power grids.

"These initial images show a dynamic sun that I had never seen in more than 40 years of solar research," said Richard Fisher, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "SDO [Solar Dynamics Observatory] will change our understanding of the sun and its processes, which affect our lives and society."

[sleeper]

This is rad.

[shorelocal]

That's hot

[tazzmenn]

Brilliant!

[Lady Gravity]

very cool!

[L. Ron Hubbard]

http://www.nasa.gov/mov/445814main_P...nce%20H264.mov

[strahan]

literally a burning ring of fire. Cash would be so stoked.

[Bushman]

Boggles the mind

well my mind anyway

[Feral]

It's pretty exciting. Considering that most of what we know of stellar astrophysics is based on our understanding of our own sun, and how limited that was, this promises to change things pretty drastically.

[Carrot Top]

Definition of Solar Flare: A sudden intense brightening of a small part of the Sun's surface, often near a sunspot group. Flares develop in a few minutes and may last several hours, releasing intense X rays and streams of energetic particles. They appear to be connected with changes in the Sun's magnetic fields during the solar cycle. The ejected particles take a day or two to reach the vicinity of Earth, where they can disrupt radio communications and cause auroras, and may pose a radiation hazard to astronauts.

[Mic]

Epic.