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On 2 of December, 1995 a spacecraft called SOHO (Solar & Heliospheric Observatory) was launched into space with the mission of studying the internal structure of the Sun, it’s extensive outer atmosphere and the origin of the solar wind which is a stream of ionized gas that blows continuously outward through the Solar System.
This project is the result of a combination of strength between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. ESA was responsible for the production of the space craft and its instruments while NASA was responsible for the launch and is now responsible for mission operations because NASA keeps track of the spacecraft through large radio dishes spread around the world which form NASA’s Deep Space Network.
Trough subtle waves that come from the interior of the Sun and that show up at its surface in the form of small ripples which are extremely difficult to be observed in detail from Earth, scientist expect to get more information about the core of the Sun. These details about the hidden core of the Sun will shed light to questions related to its formation, 4.6 billion years ago.
These subtle waves called g modes are thought to occur when churning gas bellow the solar surface sinks deeper into the star and collides with denser material originating ripples that propagate through the Sun’s interior up to its surface. When these waves reach the surface of the Sun they only measure a few meters and last some hours since it takes between two and seven hours to rise and fall just once.
Since 1995 that most of data retrieved by SOHO helped a lot of investigations and answered some questions about space.
One of the most important questions that this project expects to answer is the speed of the rotation of the Sun’s core which will reveal a lot of information about how our solar system was formed, because it represents the hub of rotation for the interstellar cloud that eventually formed the Sun and all the planets.
Now that you know the general information about this amazing machine that has been traveling the space for over 11 years and 5 months I’m sure that you’re going to like to check out the best pictures sent by SOHO.
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(Above: the Sun)An EIT 304Å image captures a pair of curving erupting prominences on 28 June 2000 — Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun’s hot, thin corona. At times, they can erupt, escaping the Sun’s atmosphere. Emission in this spectral line shows the upper chromosphere at a temperature of about 60,000 degrees K. Every feature in the image traces magnetic field structure. The hottest areas appear almost white, while the darker red areas indicate cooler temperatures.
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(Above: the Sun)Blasting CME
This LASCO C2 image, taken 8 January 2002, shows a widely spreading coronal mass ejection (CME) as it blasts more than a billion tons of matter out into space at millions of kilometers per hour. The C2 image was turned 90 degrees so that the blast seems to be pointing down. An EIT 304 Angstrom image from a different day was enlarged and superimposed on the C2 image so that it filled the occulting disk for effect.
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(Above)SWAN observed a huge cloud of hydrogen, 70 times the size of the Sun, that surrounded Comet Hale-Bopp when it neared the Sun. Ultra violet light, charted by SWAN in 1997, revealed a cloud 100 million kilometres w ide and diminishing in intensity outwards (contour lines). The cloud was generat ed by a comet nucleus perhaps only about 40 kilometres in diameter. The yellow c ircle (lower right) gives the size of the Sun. Solar rays broke up water vapor r eleased from the comet by the Sun’s warmth. The resulting hydrogen atoms shone by ultraviolet light invisible from the Earth’s surface.
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(Above: the Sun)This composite image combines EIT images from three wavelengths (171Å, 195Å and 284Å) into one that reveals solar features unique to each wavelength. Since the EIT images come to us from the spacecraft in black and white, they are color coded for easy identification. For this image, the nearly simultaneous images from May 1998 were each given a color code (red, yellow and blue) and merged into one.
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(Above: the Sun)Active regions and magnetic loops as recorded by EIT in the Fe IX/X 171Å line. The temperature of this material is about 1 million K in the lower corona.
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(Above: the Sun)CME blast — This dramatic coronal mass ejection was captured 7 August 2002 as it blasted billions of tons of particles millions of miles per hour out into space. The image was taken by the LASCO C2 instrument, which blocks out the Sun with an occulting disk so that we can see the fine details of the faint corona. An EIT 284Å image of the Sun itself, taken at about the same time, was enlarged and superimposed on the occulting disk.
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(Above: the Sun)A bright solar flare is captured by the EIT 195Å instrument on 1998 May 2. A solar flare (a sudden, rapid, and intense variation in brightness) occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar atmosphere is suddenly released, launching material outward at millions of km per hour. The Sun’s magnetic fields tend to restrain each other and force the buildup of tremendous energy, like twisting rubber bands, so much that they eventually break. At some point, the magnetic lines of force merge and cancel in a process known as magnetic reconnection, causing plasma to forcefully escape from the Sun.
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(Above: the Sun)The Sun’s magnetic field and releases of plasma directly affect Earth and the rest of the solar system. Solar wind shapes the Earth’s magnetosphere and magnetic storms are illustrated here as approaching Earth. These storms, which occur frequently, can disrupt communications and navigational equipment, damage satellites, and even cause blackouts. The white lines represent the solar wind; the purple line is the bow shock line; and the blue lines surrounding the Earth represent its protective magnetosphere. The magnetic cloud of plasma can extend to 30 million miles wide by the time it reaches earth.
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(Above: The Sun)Spacecraft illustration — SOHO was launched in December 1995 by an Atlas Centaur rocket and became operational in March 1996. SOHO weighs about two tons and with its solar panels extended stands about 25 feet across. It was launched in December, 1995. SOHO will continue operating well past the next solar maximum in 2001. (Image credit: Alex Lutkus)