NASA Has Shared An Epic Time Lapse Video Tracking The Sun For 22 Years
Joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA has now marked quarter of a century in space Launched on December 2 1995 the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recently posted a time-lapse video recording decades of solar movement through space. The 50-minute video shows a 360-degree view of the sun recorded since 1998.
A joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA has now marked quarter of a century in space.
NASA
Launched on December 2, 1995, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recently posted a time-lapse video, recording decades of solar movement through space.
Remarkably, SOHO¡¯s original operating phase was scheduled only for two years. After repeated extensions, it is now celebrating the quarter century mark in orbit. NASA now marks the success with this video going viral on social media.
The 50-minute video shows a 360-degree view of the sun, recorded since 1998. The centre of the Sun has been blocked for a clearer visibility at the emerging light travelling through space. The other bright spots that tend to revolve around the Sun periodically are photobombing planets. You can watch the mesmerizing video here-
Marking SOHO¡¯s 25th anniversary, NASA shares the story of how it contributed to the understanding of our Sun. SOHO was initiated as an innovative design back at its time, with an objective of observing the flow of energy and material from the Sun to the Earth. It does this using coronagraphs, telescopes specialized to block the bright side of the Sun. This allows better visibility of the faint light extending from the star.
A total of 12 instruments are onboard SOHO, including a Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph, known as LASCO, which provides a 360-degree view of the Sun¡¯s atmosphere.
What is seen in the new video of the Sun is a merged view from two of LASCO¡¯s coronagraphs: C2 and C3. While C2, with a smaller field of view, images closer to the Sun¡¯s surface, C3 provides a wider field of view of the Sun. The imagery has been processed by scientists at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., the agency that manages the LASCO instrument.
(Image: NASA)
SOHO enabled researchers to finally see the shape and structure of CMEs or coronal mass ejections in detail. CMEs are giant eruptions on the Sun that spew out solar material and magnetic fields into space. When aimed at Earth, these CMEs can ¡°impact the functionality of spacecraft, threaten astronauts on spacewalks and even, when very intense, impact power grids on the ground,¡± says NASA. CMEs now form an important part of our analysis of space weather.
¡°At the time SOHO was designed, very few people talked or thought about space weather,¡± SOHO Project Scientist Bernhard Fleck at ESA said. ¡°But now, I look at SOHO observations like weather radar. Now it is as normal as opening your weather app and checking when the rain is coming.¡±
