SOHO “Sunscapes” Script

Final Version
Last Updated: 6 April 2005

Proposed captions (a.k.a. “solar haiku”) appear in regular typeface.

Comments and image suggestions appear in italics.




Introduction

Our Nearest Star

Our nearest star, the Sun, provides the energy that makes life on Earth possible.

We monitor and document how the Sun changes over time, in ways that can affect everything from weather on Earth to satellites in space.

The Visible Sun

The most noticable features on the visible Sun are sunspots, relatively cool regions that appear slightly darker than their surroundings.

The Sun emits most of its light in wavelengths we can see. But it produces an entire spectrum of radiation, from long-wavelength, low-energy radio and infrared light to short-wavelength, high-energy ultraviolet and x-rays.

The SOHO Spacecraft

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) makes regular observations of the Sun at many different wavelengths, revealing day-to-day changes in the solar environment.

[SOHO is a project of the European Space Agency in collaboration with NASA.]

The Sun in Extreme Ultraviolet

In extreme ultraviolet light, we see helium heated to 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit...

[The Sun consists primarily of hydrogen; helium accounts for only 10% of the atoms in the Sun.]

The Sun in Extreme Ultraviolet

And at even shorter wavelengths, we observe plumes at temperatures of more than two million degrees Fahrenheit.

The Solar Corona

A circle at the center of the image represents the disc of the Sun, blocked by SOHO to create an artificial solar eclipse that allows the telescope to see the faint, tenuous gas in the Sun’s corona.

The Extended Corona

The small circle at the center again represents the size and position of the Sun, but now we are looking at a region nearly 28 million miles across. Points of light crossing from left-to-right in the image are background stars.

An Integrated View

A storm of energetic particles released by the Sun can often overwhelm SOHO’s special detectors, giving images a scratched or mottled appearance.

By viewing the Sun at different wavelengths and monitoring it over time, SOHO and other solar telescopes allow us to gain a fuller understanding of our nearest star.




Real-Time Update

Today’s Sun in Visible Light

The Sun takes about a month to rotate once, as seen in this sequence of images from SOHO. Currently, the Sun is near its minimum level of activity, so we see very few sunspots.

The Sun in Visble Light (from MPI)

Today’s Sun in Extreme Ultraviolet

Helium heated to temperatures around 100,000 degrees Fahrenheit emits light at ultraviolet wavelengths — highlighting solar prominences, fountains of cool, dense gas that originate in regions of magnetic instability.

The Sun in EUV (from EIT)

(N.B. that the preceding image sequence is much shorter than they’d normally be because of the bakeout that just wrapped up on 1 April.)

Today’s Sun in Extreme Ultraviolet

At even shorter wavelengths, we observe radiation emitted by trace amounts of iron at temperatures over 2 million degrees Fahrenheit, revealing magnetic loops and plumes of outward-flowing gas.

The Sun in EUV (from EIT)

(N.B. that the preceding image sequence is much shorter than they’d normally be because of the bakeout that just wrapped up on 1 April.)

Today’s Solar Corona

A circle at the center of the image represents the disc of the Sun, blocked by SOHO to create an artificial solar eclipse that allows the telescope to see the faint, tenuous gas in the Sun’s corona.

The Solar Corona (from LASCO)

Today’s Extended Corona

The small circle at the center again represents the size and position of the Sun, but now we are looking at a region nearly 28 million miles across. Points of light crossing from left-to-right in the image are background stars.

The Corona Farther Out (from LASCO)