On camera – sun’s dramatic storms
A NASA unmanned science satellite films dramatic never-seen-before impages of the sun – including extreme close-ups of solar activity.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) made the first high-resolution measurements of solar flares in a broad range of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.
NASA says SDO, which was launched from Cape Canaveral on 11 February, will change scientists’ understanding of the sun’s processes.
They believe it will produce as big as impact on science as the Hubble Space Telescope has had on modern astrophysics.
The satellite is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun. It orbits the earth almost directly above NASA’S ground station in the US state of New Mexico.
Over the next five years, it will examine the sun’s magnetic field with the aim of providing a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and climate.
The NASA high-definition images include views of Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), a large wave, which is travelling across the sun.