{ "count": 18, "next": null, "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 10785, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10785/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2013-05-07T11:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA's Heliophysics Fleet Captures May 1, 2013 Prominence Eruption and CME", "description": "On May 1, 2013, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) watched as an active region just around the East limb (left edge) of the sun erupted with a huge cloud of solar material—a heated, charged gas called plasma. This eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, or CME, sent the plasma streaming out through the solar system. Viewing the sun in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 304 angstroms, SDO provided a beautiful view of the initial arc as it left the solar surface. Such eruptions soon leave SDO's field of view, but other satellites in NASA's Heliophysics fleet can pick them up, tracking such space weather to determine if they are headed toward Earth or spacecraft near other planets. With advance warning, many space assets can be put into safe mode and protect themselves from the effects of such particle radiation.In addition to the images captured by SDO, the May 1, 2013 CME was also observed by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). SOHO houses two overlapping coronagraphs—telescopes where the bright sun is blocked by a disk so it doesn't overpower the fainter solar atmosphere—and they both saw the CME continue outward. The LASCO C2 coronagraph shows the region out to about 2.5 million miles. The LASCO C3 coronagraph expands even farther out to around 13.5 million miles. Both of these instruments show the CME as it expands and becomes fainter on its trip away from the sun.NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) Ahead satellite saw the eruption from a very different angle. It, along with its twin STEREO Behind, is orbiting at a similar distance as Earth. STEREO-A orbits slightly faster than Earth and STEREO-B orbits slightly slower. Currently, STEREO-A is more than two-thirds of the way to being directly behind the sun, and has a view of the far side of the sun. From this perspective, the CME came off the right side of the sun. STEREO has an extreme ultraviolet camera similar to SDO's, but it also has coronagraphs like SOHO. As a result, using its two inner coronagraphs, it was able to track the CME from the solar surface out to 6.3 million miles.Working together, such missions provide excellent coverage of a wide variety of solar events, a wealth of scientific data—and lots of beautiful imagery.Watch this video on YouTube. || ", "hits": 96 }, { "id": 11226, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11226/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2013-03-18T15:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO Watches the Sun Blast Comet PanSTARRS", "description": "This movie from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) shows comet PanSTARRS as it moved around the sun from March 10-15,2013 (repeated three times). The images were captured by the Heliospheric Imager (HI), an instrument that looks to the side of the sun to watch coronal mass ejections (CMEs) as they travel toward Earth, which is the unmoving bright orb on the right. The bright light on the left comes from the sun and the bursts from the left represent the solar material erupting off the sun in a CME. While it appears from STEREO's point of view that the CME passes right by the comet, the two are not lying in the same plane, which scientists know since the comet's tail didn't move or change in response to the CME's passage. || ", "hits": 37 }, { "id": 10809, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10809/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-08-18T13:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA Spacecraft Track Solar Storms From Sun To Earth", "description": "NASA's STEREO spacecraft and new data processing techniques have succeeded in tracking space weather events from their origin in the Sun's ultrahot corona to impact with the Earth 93 million miles away, resolving a 40-year mystery about the structure of the structures that cause space weather: how the structures that impact the Earth relate to the corresponding structures in the solar corona.Despite many instruments that monitor the Sun and a fleet of near-earth probes, the connection between near-Earth disturbances and their counterparts on the Sun has been obscure, because CMEs and the solar wind evolve and change during the 93,000,000 mile journey from the Sun to the Earth.STEREO includes \"heliospheric imager\" cameras that monitor the sky at large angles from the Sun, but the starfield and galaxy are 1,000 times brighter than the faint rays of sunlight reflected by free-floating electron clouds inside CMEs and the solar wind; this has made direct imaging of these important structures difficult or impossible, and limited understanding of the connection between space storms and the coronal structures that cause them.Newly released imagery reveals absolute brightness of detailed features in a large geoeffective CME in late 2008, connecting the original magnetized structure in the Sun's corona to the intricate anatomy of an interplanetary storm as it impacted the Earth three days later. At the time the data were collected, in late 2008, STEREO-A was nearly 45 degrees ahead of the Earth in its orbit, affording a very clear view of the Earth-Sun line.For the press conference Visual 1, a visualization of the STEREO orbits and the 2008 CME, go here.For Visual 7, a CME and reconnection animation, go here.For Visual 8, footage of the October 2003 solar storms, go here. || ", "hits": 126 }, { "id": 3595, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3595/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-07-27T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Sentinels of the Heliosphere", "description": "Heliophysics is a term to describe the study of the Sun, its atmosphere or the heliosphere, and the planets within it as a system. As a result, it encompasses the study of planetary atmospheres and their magnetic environment, or magnetospheres. These environments are important in the study of space weather.As a society dependent on technology, both in everyday life, and as part of our economic growth, space weather becomes increasingly important. Changes in space weather, either by solar events or geomagnetic events, can disrupt and even damage power grids and satellite communications. Space weather events can also generate x-rays and gamma-rays, as well as particle radiations, that can jeopardize the lives of astronauts living and working in space.This visualization tours the regions of near-Earth orbit; the Earth's magnetosphere, sometimes called geospace; the region between the Earth and the Sun; and finally out beyond Pluto, where Voyager 1 and 2 are exploring the boundary between the Sun and the rest of our Milky Way galaxy. Along the way, we see these regions patrolled by a fleet of satellites that make up NASA's Heliophysics Observatory Telescopes. Many of these spacecraft do not take images in the conventional sense but record fields, particle energies and fluxes in situ. Many of these missions are operated in conjunction with international partners, such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA).The Earth and distances are to scale. Larger objects are used to represent the satellites and other planets for clarity.Here are the spacecraft featured in this movie:Near-Earth Fleet:Hinode: Observes the Sun in multiple wavelengths up to x-rays. SVS pageRHESSI : Observes the Sun in x-rays and gamma-rays. SVS pageTRACE: Observes the Sun in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. SVS pageTIMED: Studies the upper layers (40-110 miles up) of the Earth's atmosphere.FAST: Measures particles and fields in regions where aurora form.CINDI: Measures interactions of neutral and charged particles in the ionosphere. AIM: Images and measures noctilucent clouds. SVS pageGeospace Fleet:Geotail: Conducts measurements of electrons and ions in the Earth's magnetotail. Cluster: This is a group of four satellites which fly in formation to measure how particles and fields in the magnetosphere vary in space and time. SVS pageTHEMIS: This is a fleet of five satellites to study how magnetospheric instabilities produce substorms. SVS pageL1 Fleet: The L1 point is a Lagrange Point, a point between the Earth and the Sun where the gravitational pull is approximately equal. Spacecraft can orbit this location for continuous coverage of the Sun.SOHO: Studies the Sun with cameras and a multitude of other instruments. SVS pageACE: Measures the composition and characteristics of the solar wind. Wind: Measures particle flows and fields in the solar wind. Heliospheric FleetSTEREO-A and B: These two satellites observe the Sun, with imagers and particle detectors, off the Earth-Sun line, providing a 3-D view of solar activity. SVS pageHeliopause FleetVoyager 1 and 2: These spacecraft conducted the original 'Planetary Grand Tour' of the solar system in the 1970s and 1980s. They have now travelled further than any human-built spacecraft and are still returning measurements of the interplanetary medium. SVS pageThis enhanced, narrated visualization was shown at the SIGGRAPH 2009 Computer Animation Festival in New Orleans, LA in August 2009; an eariler version created for AGU was called NASA's Heliophysics Observatories Study the Sun and Geospace. || ", "hits": 101 }, { "id": 20179, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20179/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2009-04-14T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO Reveals the Anatomy of a Solar Storm in 3-D", "description": "Observations from NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft allowed scientists, for the first time, to reveal the true size and shape of solar explosions known as coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, in three dimensions. || ", "hits": 31 }, { "id": 3591, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3591/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2009-04-09T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO Visits the Lagrange Points - L4 and L5", "description": "The two STEREO spacecraft orbit the Sun in orbits slightly different from the Earth. STEREO A orbits between the Earth and the Sun, while STEREO-B orbits beyond the Earth and the Sun. As a result, relative to the Earth, STEREO-A appears to move ahead of the Earth, while STEREO-B falls behind the Earth, in their motion around the Sun.In this configuration, the two spacecraft are now passing near the two stable Lagrange Points, L4 and L5, of the Earth-Sun system. The STEREO spacecraft are imaging these regions in the hopes of finding material that might have been left over from the original formation of the Solar System.Revision Note: April 15, 2009:It was pointed out that L4 and L5 were reversed in the initial release of this visualization. These animations and stills were revised to reflect the corrections. We apologize for any inconvenience. || ", "hits": 162 }, { "id": 3570, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3570/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2008-12-15T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "NASA's Heliophysics Observatories Study the Sun and Geospace", "description": "Heliophysics is a term to describe the study of the Sun, its atmosphere or the heliosphere, and the planets within it as a system. As a result, it encompasses the study of planetary atmospheres and their magnetic environment, or magnetospheres. These environments are important in the study of space weather.As a society dependent on technology, both in everyday life, and as part of our economic growth, space weather becomes increasingly important. Changes in space weather, either by solar events or geomagnetic events, can disrupt and even damage power grids and satellite communications. Space weather events can also generate x-rays and gamma-rays, as well as particle radiations, that can jeopardize the lives of astronauts living and working in space.This visualization tours the regions of near-Earth orbit; the Earth's magnetosphere, sometimes called geospace; the region between the Earth and the Sun; and finally out beyond Pluto, where Voyager 1 and 2 are exploring the boundary between the Sun and the rest of our Milky Way galaxy. Along the way, we see these regions patrolled by a fleet of satellites that make up NASA's Heliophysics Observatory Telescopes. Many of these spacecraft do not take images in the conventional sense but record fields, particle energies and fluxes in situ. Many of these missions are operated in conjunction with international partners, such as the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA).The Earth and distances are to scale. Larger objects are used to represent the satellites and other planets for clarity.Here are the spacecraft featured in this movie:Near-Earth Fleet:Hinode: Observes the Sun in multiple wavelengths up to x-rays. SVS pageRHESSI : Observes the Sun in x-rays and gamma-rays. SVS pageTRACE: Observes the Sun in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. SVS pageTIMED: Studies the upper layers (40-110 miles up) of the Earth's atmosphere.FAST: Measures particles and fields in regions where aurora form.CINDI: Measures interactions of neutral and charged particles in the ionosphere. AIM: Images and measures noctilucent clouds. SVS pageGeospace Fleet:Geotail: Conducts measurements of electrons and ions in the Earth's magnetotail. Cluster: This is a group of four satellites which fly in formation to measure how particles and fields in the magnetosphere vary in space and time. SVS pageTHEMIS: This is a fleet of five satellites to study how magnetospheric instabilities produce substorms. SVS pageL1 Fleet: The L1 point is a Lagrange Point between the Sun and the Earth. Spacecraft can orbit this location for continuous coverage of the Sun.SOHO: Studies the Sun with cameras and a multitude of other instruments. SVS pageACE: Measures the composition and characteristics of the solar wind. Wind: Measures particle flows and fields in the solar wind. Heliospheric FleetSTEREO-A and B: These two satellites observe the Sun, with imagers and particle detectors, off the Earth-Sun line, providing a 3-D view of solar activity. SVS pageHeliopause FleetVoyager 1 and 2: These spacecraft conducted the original 'Planetary Grand Tour' of the solar system in the 1970s and 1980s. They have now travelled further than any human-built spacecraft and are still returning measurements of the interplanetary medium. SVS pageA refined and narrated version of this visualization, Sentinels of the Heliosphere, is now available. || ", "hits": 93 }, { "id": 20115, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20115/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2007-10-01T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Comet Encke collides with a CME", "description": "NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) satellite captured the first images ever of a collision between a coronal mass ejection and a comet. || ", "hits": 31 }, { "id": 20117, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20117/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2007-10-01T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Comet Encke hit by CME", "description": "Comet Encke being hit by CME || CE_CME000100002_print.jpg (1024x576) [32.0 KB] || CE_CME0001_web.png (320x180) [202.7 KB] || CE_CME0001_thm.png (80x40) [15.5 KB] || 1280x720_16x9_60p (1280x720) [64.0 KB] || CE_CME_720p.m2v (1280x720) [40.2 MB] || CE_CME_720p.webmhd.webm (960x540) [4.9 MB] || a010161_CE_CME_720p.mp4 (640x360) [4.1 MB] || CE_CME_512x288.m1v (512x288) [7.4 MB] || ", "hits": 25 }, { "id": 20127, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20127/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2007-10-01T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Closeup of Comet Encke from STEREO", "description": "This is a closer view of Comet Encke's collision with a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) as seen by the STEREO satellite on April 20, 2007. The collision is notable because it completely removed Encke's tail. The blue color here is a gradient added to help make the comet and CME more visible. || ", "hits": 26 }, { "id": 20103, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20103/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2007-04-17T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO Fly-by", "description": "This animation shows a stereoscopic 3D fly-by of STEREO A spacecraft. || This animation shows a stereoscopic 3D fly-by of STEREO A spacecraft. || STEREO.069000652_print.jpg (1024x576) [54.0 KB] || STEREO.0690_web.png (320x180) [241.3 KB] || Stereo.webmhd.webm (960x540) [5.7 MB] || Stereo.mov (720x405) [54.2 MB] || ", "hits": 24 }, { "id": 3406, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3406/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2007-03-01T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "STEREO Coronal Mass Ejection: From the EUVI to HI-2", "description": "This movie collects imagery from SOHO and STEREO-A of a coronal mass ejection (CME) during January of 2007. The instruments in this view, from left to right, are STEREO/HI-1, STEREO/HI-2, SOHO/LASCO/C3, SOHO/LASCO/C2, and STEREO/EUVI. The Heliospheric Imager, HI-2, shows some of the tail of comet McNaught. The dark trapezoidal shape on the left edge of the image in HI-2 is the Earth occulter which will block out the disk of the Earth when it moves into view (since the planet will appear so bright as to saturate the detectors). Due to ongoing work with the STEREO coronagraphs, COR1 and COR2, the SOHO/LASCO coronagraphs are used for this movie. The blue Sun in the center of the coronagraphs is STEREO/EUVI ultraviolet images.There is a 22 hour gap in the data coverage for HI-2 which creates the appearance of a jump in the playback.These are not standard images but are called 'running difference' images which highlight changes in the view. White pixels correspond to increases in brightness, while dark pixels reflect a decrease in brightness, with respect to the immediately previous image.'Running differencing' generates some unusual effects. For example, the mottled background is created by the motion of the stars through the field-of-view as the spacecraft pointing direction slowly changes (the Andromeda galaxy is the oblong 'smudge' near the upper left corner). The planets Venus (right edge of HI-2) and Mercury are visible (near center of HI-1), their column of pixels saturated due to their brightness.STEREO: Solar TErrestrial RElations ObservatorySOHO: SOlar Heliospheric ObservatoryLASCO: Large Angle and Spectrometric CoronagraphEUVI: Extreme UltraViolet Imager || ", "hits": 30 }, { "id": 3364, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3364/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2007-02-07T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "STEREO's Routes to Solar Orbits", "description": "The two STEREO spacecraft, A (red path) and B (yellow path), are launched from the Earth into a highly eccentric orbit with an apogee that reaches the orbit of the Moon. Once in this orbit, the trajectories are adjusted so they can receive gravity-assists from the Moon. The gravity assist will send them both into heliocentric orbits, one spacecraft ahead of the Earth and the other behind the Earth.This trajectory was generated using a spacecraft ephemeris generated shortly after launch. || ", "hits": 101 }, { "id": 20062, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20062/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-04-26T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO Watches the Active Sun", "description": "The Sun belches out gas at thousands of kilometers per second as the STEREO A spacecraft looks on. || stereo_640x480_pre.00002_print.jpg (1024x768) [47.0 KB] || stereo_640x480_pre.jpg (320x240) [4.4 KB] || stereo_320x240_pre.jpg (320x240) [4.2 KB] || STEREO_flyby_720p.m2v (1280x720) [12.0 MB] || 1280x720_16x9_30 (1280x720) [32.0 KB] || 1920x1080_16x9_30 (1920x1080) [64.0 KB] || a010064_H264_1280x720.mp4 (1280x720) [7.9 MB] || stereo_NTSC.webmhd.webm (960x540) [4.5 MB] || 720x486_4x3_30 (720x486) [32.0 KB] || stereo_640x480.mpg (640x480) [12.0 MB] || stereo_NTSC.m2v (720x480) [19.2 MB] || a010064_1280x720_seq.mpg (720x480) [14.5 MB] || a010064_720x486_seq.mpg (720x480) [16.3 MB] || a010064_H264_640x480.mp4 (640x480) [7.7 MB] || stereo_320x240.mpg (320x240) [3.1 MB] || STEREO_flyby_512x288.mpg (512x288) [3.1 MB] || ", "hits": 17 }, { "id": 20058, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20058/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-04-12T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO On-Station", "description": "The STEREO spacecraft will observed the Sun and the region between the Sun and the Earth from the Lagrange Points of the Sun-Earth system. || ", "hits": 15 }, { "id": 20059, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20059/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-04-12T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO Enroute: The Lunar Flyby", "description": "STEREO A and B get a gravity-assist for their trajectory in a fly-by of the Moon. || ", "hits": 45 }, { "id": 20060, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20060/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-04-12T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO Spacecraft Beauty-Pass", "description": "A close-up view of a STEREO satellite. || ", "hits": 43 }, { "id": 20061, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20061/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2005-04-12T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "STEREO Enroute: Earth Flyby", "description": "STEREO A gets a final boost in velocity with a gravity-assist by the Earth. || ", "hits": 26 } ] }