NASA's legendary Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has observed a new type of explosion on the Sun. Called "forced reconnection," this newly-discovered phenomenon was theorized 15 years ago. The discovery is expected to help scientists understand a...
December 18, 2019
Following a lunar transit from 11:13 to 12:18 UTC on August 2, 2016, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) did not go back into Science mode. More than 24 hours after the anomaly occurred, mission managers said the spacecraft is currently in inertial mode....
August 04, 2016
The Sun is always changing and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is always watching. Launched on February 11, 2010, SDO keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk of the Sun, with a prime view of the graceful dance of solar material coursing through the Sun's...
February 13, 2016
A small, but complex mass of solar material gyrated and spun about over the course of 40 hours above the surface of the Sun from September 1 - 3, 2015. It was stretched and pulled back and forth by powerful magnetic forces in this sequence captured by NASA’s Solar
September 09, 2015
February 11, 2015 marks five years in space for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which provides incredibly detailed images of the whole Sun 24 hours a day.Capturing an image more than once per second, SDO has provided an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massiv
February 11, 2015
On March 29, 2014 the sun released an X-class flare. It was observed by NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS; NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO; NASA's Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, or RHESSI; the Japanese Aer
May 08, 2014
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched on February 11, 2010, keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk of the Sun, with a prime view of the graceful dance of solar material coursing through the Sun's atmosphere, the corona. The
February 11, 2014
Argos (or Argus Panoptes) was the 100-eyed giant in Greek mythology. While NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has significantly less than 100 eyes, seeing connections in the solar atmosphere through the many filters of SDO presents a number of interesting
December 17, 2013
On November 28, 2013 at 18:44 UTC Comet ISON will reach its perihelion and fly by about 1.2 million km (730 000 miles) above the solar surface. Since space-based solar observatories will be recording its passage just follow the links and timetable below for
November 27, 2013
For almost 1 1/2 hours the Moon made an appearance in NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory's view on August 6, 2013. The Moon itself looks much bigger than the Sun - as the Moon is many times closer to Earth (and to SDO) than the Sun
August 07, 2013
SOHO's latest "Picture of the week" edition released great graphic illustration of combination of Sun-observing spacecrafts coverage of solar events. From their positions near the Sun-Earth line, SDO and SOHO observed small CME on July 4, 2013. At
July 20, 2013
By combining different images of the Sun, taken almost at the same time on June 7, 2013, the underlying magnetic structure of the Sun and how it appears above the solar surface can be revealed. SDO engineers combined a magnetic image of the Sun, where darker and
June 12, 2013
In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun's rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle. This video
April 22, 2013
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has eclipse seasons twice a year near each equinox. Earth passes directly between the Sun and produces a series of eclipses from the point of view of the spacecraft.The first eclipse of the SDO Spring 2013 Eclipse Season
March 03, 2013
NASA/SDO released a short video which covers January 5 through 7 and shows the 171 angstroms channel, which is especially good at showing coronal loops - the arcs extending off of the Sun where plasma moves along the magnetic field lines. The brightest spots
January 08, 2013
JHelioviewer is visualization software that enables everyone, anywhere to explore the Sun. Developed as part of the ESA/NASA Helioviewer Project, it provides a desktop program that enables users to call up images of the Sun from the past 15 years. Software contains
November 24, 2012
While trying to access SOHO's coronograph data we noticed that the latest LASCO C2 image is updated on August 18 at 13:36 and LASCO C3 at 13:30. Also, SOHO's EIT 304 latest image is from August 17 at 13:19, EIT 195 is from August 16 at 13:13 while EIT 171 and 284 show
August 19, 2012
A comet discovered by amateur astronomers on Friday, Sept. 30th, disintegrated in spectacular fashion the very next day when it plunged into the sun. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the comet's last hours. The end was punctuated by an unexpected
October 04, 2011
On October 1st around 10:17 UT, widely-spaced sunspots 1302 and 1305 erupted in quick succession, revealing a long-distance entanglement which was not obvious before. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded the movie of the double blast:Since it was
October 02, 2011
Today, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is monitoring sine wave 400,000 km long. It's an enormous filament of magnetism slithering over the sun's northeastern limb:One of the wave troughs appears to be passing through the core of sunspot 1282. If so, an eruption
September 01, 2011
Sunspots are emerging at several locations around the solar disk, peppering the Earth-side of the sun with active regions. Of particular interest is fast-growing sunspot 1282, shown here in an August 31st snapshot from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:AR1282 has
August 30, 2011
A yawning dark hole in the sun's atmosphere is spewing solar wind toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the opening during the early hours of Aug. 26th: Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole is expected to arrive on Aug. 28-29,
August 26, 2011
Yesterday, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory witnessed a spectacular explosion on the sun that seemed to pass perilously close to Venus.As the movie shows, the CME passed harmlessly. There was no collision, and it wasn't even close. Although Venus seems to be
August 17, 2011
A big new sunspot is emerging over the sun's northeastern limb. AR1271 has at least four dark cores and it is crackling with small flares. The sunspot's entrance was captured in this 24-hour movie from the Solar Dynamics Observatory: NOAA forecasters...
August 16, 2011
A second M-Class flare, this time a M2.5 took place at 03:54 UTC Tuesday morning around Sunspot 1263. This is in addition to the earlier M3.5 flare which we reported yesterday. The first flare produced a small, but fast moving (2010 km/s) Coronal Mass Ejection...
August 09, 2011
Behemoth sunspot 1263 has almost doubled in size this weekend. A 28-hour movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the spot developing a tail that has added some 50,000 km of length to the active region.This development may increase the likelihood of a stro
August 08, 2011
Magnetic fields above sunspot 1261 erupted this morning at 0648 UT, producing an M1-class solar flare. The blast also hurled a bright coronal mass ejection toward Earth. This movie from the STEREO-Ahead spacecraft shows the cloud racing away from the sun at almost
August 02, 2011
On June 7, 2011, Earth-orbiting satellites detected a flash of X-rays coming from the western edge of the solar disk. Registering only "M" (for medium) on the Richter scale of solar flares, the blast at first appeared to be a run-of-the-mill eruption- that is, until
July 12, 2011
The CME was not squarely Earth-directed and is not traveling at great speed, only minor geomagnetic storming is expected when the cloud arrives. A coronal mass ejection (CME) that billowed away from sunspot 1247 on July 9th could hit Earth's magnetic field on...
July 10, 2011
At 06:41 UTC today the Sun unleashed an M2-class solar flare from arround the sunspot complex 1226-1227. Substantial Coronal Mass Ejection was observed and was visually spectacular. The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it
June 07, 2011
A comet dove into the sun on May 11th and seemed to trigger a massive eruption. Watch the movie, then scroll down for further discussion. A comet goes in; a CME comes out. Coincidence? Probably, yes, the sequence was coincidental. The comet disintegrated
May 12, 2011
A sunspot located just behind the sun's eastern limb erupted during the waning hours of May 9th, hurling a spectacular coronal mass ejection into space: movie. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed hot magnetic loops towering over the edge of the sun in the
May 11, 2011
M3.6 solar flare occurred on February 24 near the solar esatern limb and blew out a gorgeous CME plasma waves that swirled and twisted over a 90-minute period. Some of the material blew out into space and other portions fell back to the surface. This event was
February 26, 2011