Last week, NASA showed off some spectacular new images from its newly launched Solar Dynamics Observatory. The satellite was launched in February and in addition to providing a new look at the sun, it’s also designed to predict disruptive solar storms.
Researchers showed off brightly colored images and short movie clips of the sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory in a webcast.
According to reports, scientists are already learning a lot from the new satellite. Dean Pesnell, the chief scientist, says it already has disproved at least one theory, but he didn’t give any details.
Richard Fisher, director of NASA’s heliophysics division, says the satellite is operating flawlessly.
It carries three instrument packages, one built by the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics and two built by Lockheed Martin in Palo Alto, California.
You can check out some of the images via National Geographic.
For those with an iPhone or iTouch or mega-iTouch (iPad), there is an app called 3DSun (http://3dsun.org/).
You get alerts, and news, and you can view movies and real time data. There are other neat clips, like a comet streaking into the sun.