NASA releases stunning images, video of the sun

Fiery halos of ionised gas burst from the sun in the first video taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). This video, featured above, is an unprecedented view of the sun and its activity. The observatory, launched on Feb. 11, takes ultra-sharp images of the entire disc of the sun – previous high-resolution satellites could see only small portions of its surface at a time.

NASA says SDO’s purpose during its five-year mission is to “examine the sun’s magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and climate.”

As New Scientist explains, one of the probe’s instruments, the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), “uses four telescopes to study the sun’s surface and atmosphere.”

The solar telescope uses a combination of 4096 x 4096-pixel CCDs with massive dynamic range, communicating with researchers on the ground around the clock.

A close-up view of the sun via NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. A prominence eruption on the sun: an arc of gas can loop hundreds of thousands of kilometres into space, held for months by strong magnetic fields

NASA

Among the images NASA released, some of the more stunning pics display colourful close-ups of the sun’s surface. One shows extreme ultraviolet light emitted by ionised helium, indicating a temperature near 80,000 degrees Celsius. Another gives us a peak into how a solar prominence (loop) erupts from the surface of the sun.

More images of the sun can be found below:

The extreme ultraviolet light emitted by ionised helium on the sun indicates a temperature near 80,000 degrees Celsius

NASA

Light emitted by highly ionised iron atoms indicates a temperature of nearly 16,000,000 degrees Celsius on the sun

NASA

How the sun has changed in the past nine years

NASA