'February 11, 2015 marks five years in space for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory or SDO, which provides incredibly detailed images of the Earth-facing side of the sun 24 hours a day,' said Nasa.
'Capturing an image almost once per second, SDO has provided an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massive explosions on the sun grow and erupt ever since its launch on Feb. 11, 2010.'
In honor of SDO's fifth anniversary, NASA has released two videos showcasing highlights from the last five years of sun watching.
The first is a time lapse of the past five years.
Different colors represent different wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, ultraviolet light, and visible light, which in turn correspond to solar material at different temperatures. Additionally SDO returns solar magnetic field data that helps scientists study solar activity.
The second video showcases highlights from the last five years.
The imagery in both videos is an example of the kind of data that SDO provides to scientists.
'There have now been more than 2,000 scientific papers published based on SDO data,' said Dean Pesnell, project scientist for SDO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
'SDO has also led to wonderful international collaborations, with the data being shared and used all over the world.'
(dailymail.co.uk)
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