The brightest star of them all and the center of the solar system makes its burning hot performance throughout the time-lapse video clips that show how powerful and burning the sun is. An hour-long film footage begins during a phase in the sun's solar cycle known as the "solar minimum," when the sun is largely quiet, with only the odd flash of brilliant light signaling some type of solar activity, such as a sunspot as well as a solar flare. The quantity and strength of these bursts rise in the footage until they peak at the cycle's halfway - when it achieves the "solar maximum" - and afterward begin to subside.
NASA did not anticipate the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to catch the full solar cycle when it launched - it was only meant for a five-year expedition. However, because it has been operational for twice as long, NASA scientists have had the opportunity to gather information on a full cycle - data that may be used to anticipate the sun's potential magnetic activity, which might influence anything from satellite performance to astronaut health.
SDO: The Solar Dynamics Observatory is the inaugural mission of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program, which aims to study the origins of solar variability and its effects on Earth. SDO is intended to aid in our understanding of the Sun's effect on Earth beyond Near-Earth space by investigating the solar environment on tiny dimensions of time and space and at numerous wavelengths at the same pace.
SDO's Decade of Bright Discoveries
SDO's purpose is to determine the solar fluctuations that affect life on planet Earth and humanity's advanced technologies to develop predictive capabilities. It was also launched to investigate how and why the Sun's magnetic force is formed and organized, as well as how this accumulated magnetic energy is transferred and distributed into the heliosphere including geospace in the application of solar storms, and energetic particles, including fluctuations in solar irradiance.
SDO's data has revealed several discoveries over its decade in space, at least one of which could someday help us fuel life on Earth. The SDO resulted in the identification of a brand-new sort of magnetic explosion in 2019, which scientists had initially speculated existed a decade before. This discovery might assist researchers in determining how to better regulate plasma in a laboratory setting, which could aid in the advancement of nuclear fusion technologies.
And the SDO isn't finished yet; it continues to keep its eyes set squarely on the sun, which means it may reveal fresh insights in the coming that we haven't even contemplated. As SDO stated, it was propelled on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral's SLC 41 at 10:23 a.m. EST on February 11, 2010.
Solar plasma rains down onto the surface of the Sun from these intensely heated coronal loops. An image of Earth is provided for scale. In a compiled footage of the sun, the SDO or the solar dynamics observatory released a decade of research with the solar system’s center.
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SDO's 10 Discoveries on a 10-year Gathered Sun Studies
NASA identified in a press release some of the momentous learnings of SDO in studying the center of the solar system. SDO's extended space career has permitted it to observe nearly a whole solar cycle - the Sun's 11-year period of activity. Here are some of SDO's successes over the years:
Flaming Flares
SDO has observed innumerable incredible flares - massive eruptions of plasma emitted from the surface of the sun - numerous of which have established classic pictures of our closest star's fury. SDO saw approximately 200 solar flares during its first year as well as a half, allowing scientists to identify a pattern. They discovered that almost 15% of the total flares used to have a "late phase flare" that occurred minutes to hours following the initial flare. Scientists obtained a better grasp of the amount of energy released when the Sun explodes by examining this unique class.
Tornadoes of the Sun
SDO acquired photographs of bizarre plasma tornados on the surface of the sun in February 2012. Later measurements revealed that these tornadoes, caused by magnetic fields rotating the plasma, could revolve at speeds of up to 186,000 miles per hour. Tornadoes on Earth can only travel at speeds of 300 miles per hour.
Massive Waves
The churning sea of plasma on the sun's surface may generate massive waves that can move up to 3 million miles per hour around the Sun. These waves, dubbed EIT waves after an instrument on the Solar and Heliophysics Observatory spacecraft which thus found them, were captured in high detail by SDO in 2010. For the first time, the observations revealed how the waves flow over the surface.
Comets That Burn
SDO has observed two comets pass by the Sun over the years. Comet Lovejoy was able to withstand the extreme heating when it traveled 516,000 miles above the evaporating surface in December 2011. Comet ISON was destroyed in a collision in 2013. SDO observations like this have given scientists fresh insights into how the Sun interacted with comets.
Global Circulation
Due to the immense heat attempting to escape as well as the Sun's spin, the whole Sun is constantly streaming. Large-scale circulation patterns known as Meridional circulation are active in the mid-latitudes. The observations of the SDO revealed that even these circulations are more complicated than scientists had previously imagined and that they are tied to sunspot generation.
Forecasting the Future
The solar system's overflowing of debris from the coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, as well as the solar wind. They can cause space weather whenever they interact with Earth's magnetic environment, which can be dangerous to spacecraft and people. NASA scientists used SDO data to calculate the course of a CME as it passes from across the solar system to forecast its possible impact on Earth.
Coronal Darkenings
The corona, the Sun's wispy superheated outer atmosphere, dims from time to time. Coronal dimming has been connected to CMEs, which are among the major causes of severe space weather patterns that may destroy satellites and kill astronauts, according to scientists investigating it.
The Solar Cycle: Death and Rebirth
SDO has already seen nearly an entire 11-year solar cycle over a decade. SDO began monitoring the Sun's activity during the commencement of Solar Cycle 24 and watched as it increased to sunspot activity and subsequently decreased to the present continuing solar minimum.
Coronal Polar Holes
When extreme ultraviolet radiation is minimal, the Sun's surface is characterized by enormous black regions known as coronal holes. The holes, which are linked to the Sun's magnetic field, follow every solar cycle, rising at the sunspot activity. Polar coronal holes emerge at the top and bottom of the Sun and their disappearance allows SDO scientists to pinpoint when the Sun's magnetic field switched.
Magnetic Explosions of New Kind
SDO monitoring enabled scientists to identify a completely new sort of magnetic explosion near the close of the decade in Dec 2019. This specific variety, known as spontaneous magnetic reconnection (as opposed to more generic forms of magnetic reconnection already discovered), helped corroborate a decades-old notion. It may also help scientists better understand why the stellar atmosphere has become so hot, improve space weather forecasting, and lead to advances in regulated fusion and laboratory plasma research.
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