Home | Contact | Sitemap | 中文 | CAS
Search:
About Us Research People International Cooperation News Education & Training Join Us Journals Papers Resources Links
Location: Home > News > Research Trends
Research Trends
Solar Dynamics Observatory Shows Sun's Rainbow of Wavelengths

  

  

   This still image was taken from a new NASA movie of the sun based on data from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, showing the wide range of wavelengths – invisible to the naked eye – that the telescope can view. SDO converts the wavelengths into an image humans can see, and the light is colorized into a rainbow of colors.

  Yellow light of 5800 Angstroms, for example, generally emanates from material of about 10,000 degrees F (5700 degrees C), which represents the surface of the sun. Extreme ultraviolet light of 94 Angstroms, which is typically colorized in green in SDO images, comes from atoms that are about 11 million degrees F (6,300,000 degrees C) and is a good wavelength for looking at solar flares, which can reach such high temperatures. By examining pictures of the sun in a variety of wavelengths – as is done not only by SDO, but also by NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory and the European Space Agency/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory -- scientists can track how particles and heat move through the sun's atmosphere.

For a little more insight into the project see thishttp://www.nasa.gov/content/solar-dynamics-observatory-shows-suns-rainbow-of-wavelengths/

Copyright? Purple Mountain Observatory, CAS, No.10 Yuanhua Road, Qixia District, Nanjing 210023, China
Phone: 0086 25 8333 2000 Fax: 8333 2091 http://english.pmo.cas.cn