{ "count": 19, "next": null, "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 14973, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14973/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2026-02-17T10:00:00-05:00", "title": "Furious February Flares", "description": "In early February 2026, the Sun emitted more than 50 flares including several X-class events, which is the most intense category of solar flares. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory watches the Sun 24/7 and captured these views of the Sun in multiple wavelengths of light.The Sun’s activity, which includes flares, follows an approximately 11-year cycle that creates periods of high and low activity. After reaching the current cycle’s most active phase in 2024 — known as solar maximum — the Sun remains in a heightened period of activity.For news of the recent flares: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/solar-cycle-25/ || ", "hits": 286 }, { "id": 14892, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14892/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2025-08-29T16:00:00-04:00", "title": "Solar Wind Animations", "description": "The Sun releases a constant stream of charged particles, called the solar wind. The solar wind originates in the outermost layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, when plasma is heated to a point that the Sun’s gravity can’t hold it down. When this plasma escapes – often reaching speeds of over one million miles per hour – it drags the Sun’s magnetic out across the solar system. When the solar wind encounters Earth, it is deflected by our planet's magnetic shield, causing most of the solar wind's energetic particles to flow around and beyond us. However, some of these high-energy particles can sneak past Earth’s natural magnetic defenses and produce hazardous conditions for satellites and astronauts, as well as power grids and infrastructure on Earth.Learn more about the solar wind: https://science.nasa.gov/sun/what-is-the-solar-wind/ || ", "hits": 933 }, { "id": 14164, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14164/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2022-06-07T19:00:00-04:00", "title": "Australia Sounding Rocket Campaign Press Kit", "description": "NASA will launch three suborbital sounding rockets in June and July 2022 from the Arnhem Space Center in Australia’s Northern Territory to conduct astrophysics studies that can only be done from the Southern Hemisphere. The three missions will focus on α Centauri A and B, two of the three-star α Centauri system that are the closest stars to our Sun, and X-rays emanating from the interstellar medium, clouds of gases and particles between stars.The three sounding rocket night-time missions will be launched between June 26 and July 12 on two-stage Black Brant IX sounding rockets, from the Arnhem Space Center, which is owned and operated by Equatorial Launch Australia or ELA. The Arnhem Space Center is a commercial space launch facility, located on the Dhupuma Plateau near Nhulunbuy. The NASA missions will be the first launches from Arnhem.Learn more: Australia Sounding Rocket Fact SheetWatch more: Sounding Rockets: Cutting Edge Science, 15 Minutes at a TimeWhat Is a Sounding Rocket?Riding Along with a NASA Sounding Rocket || ", "hits": 68 }, { "id": 13664, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13664/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2020-07-16T08:00:00-04:00", "title": "ESA and NASA Release First Images From Solar Orbiter Mission", "description": "Scientists from ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA will present the first images captured by Solar Orbiter, the joint ESA/NASA mission to study the Sun, during an online news briefing at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 16. Launched on Feb. 9, 2020, Solar Orbiter turned on all 10 of its instruments together for the first time in mid-June as it made its first close pass of the Sun. The flyby captured the closest images ever taken of the Sun. During the briefing, mission experts will discuss what these closeup images reveal about our star, including what we can learn from Solar Orbiter’s new measurements of particles and magnetic fields flowing from the Sun.The briefing will stream live at:https://www.nasa.gov/solarorbiterfirstlight/Participants in the call include:•Daniel Müller – Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at ESA•Holly R. Gilbert – Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at NASA•José Luis Pellón Bailón – Solar Orbiter Deputy Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA•David Berghmans – Principal investigator of the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) at the Royal Observatory of Belgium•Sami Solanki – Principal investigator of the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) and director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research•Christopher J. Owen – Principal investigator of the Solar Wind Analyser (SWA) at Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London•ESA’s first light images•ESA press release •NASA feature story || ", "hits": 240 }, { "id": 20299, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20299/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2019-12-04T13:00:00-05:00", "title": "Parker Science Result animations", "description": "On Dec. 4, 2019, four new papers in the journal Nature describe what scientists working with data from NASA's Parker Solar Probe have learned from this unprecedented exploration of our star — and what they look forward to learning next. These findings reveal new information about the behavior of the material and particles that speed away from the Sun, bringing scientists closer to answering fundamental questions about the physics of our star. These animations represent five of those findings. || ", "hits": 288 }, { "id": 12947, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12947/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2018-10-16T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Launching an ICON", "description": "The Ionospheric Connection Explorer will explore the mysteries of where Earth meets space. || STORYCOVER_ICON_Image_Portrait16x9_1024x576.jpg (1024x576) [187.1 KB] || STORYCOVER_ICON_Image_Portrait16x9.jpg (2550x1434) [637.0 KB] || STORYCOVER_NEW_ICON_Image_Portrait.jpg (2550x3300) [707.1 KB] || STORYCOVER_ICON_Image_Portrait16x9_searchweb.png (320x180) [82.4 KB] || STORYCOVER_ICON_Image_Portrait16x9_thm.png (80x40) [5.7 KB] || ", "hits": 59 }, { "id": 4668, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4668/", "result_type": "Infographic", "release_date": "2018-07-12T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Mind-Melting Facts About the Sun", "description": "Image of poster. See link below for PDF version. || MM_FATS_Infographic_w_NASA_ID_print.jpg (1024x1481) [343.3 KB] || MM_FATS_Infographic_w_NASA_ID.jpg (2966x4291) [1.7 MB] || MM_FATS_Infographic_w_NASA_ID.png (2966x4291) [10.3 MB] || MM_FATS_Infographic_w_NASA_ID_searchweb.png (320x180) [100.6 KB] || MM_FATS_Infographic_w_NASA_ID_thm.png (80x40) [6.6 KB] || Fascinating Facts about the Sun. || ", "hits": 251 }, { "id": 12614, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12614/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2017-06-02T11:00:00-04:00", "title": "SDO Anniversary Series", "description": "The sun is always changing and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is always watching. Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, SDO keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk of the sun, with a prime view of the graceful dance of solar material coursing through the sun's atmosphere, the corona.Year 1 || ", "hits": 67 }, { "id": 12144, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12144/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2016-02-12T09:00:00-05:00", "title": "SDO: Year 6", "description": "This ultra-high definition (3840x2160) video shows the sun in the 171 angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. It covers a time period of January 2, 2015 to January 28, 2016 at a cadence of one frame every hour, or 24 frames per day. This timelapse is repeated with narration by solar scientist Nicholeen Viall and contains close-ups and annotations. 171 angstrom light highlights material around 600,000 Kelvin and shows features in the upper transition region and quiet corona of the sun. The video is available to download here at 59.94 frames per second, double the rate YouTube currently allows for UHD content. The music is titled \"Tides\" and is from Killer Tracks.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || SDO_Year6_HCblend_HD.png (1920x1080) [5.3 MB] || SDO_Year6_HCblend_HD.jpg (1920x1080) [545.9 KB] || SDO_Year6_HCblend_HD_print.jpg (1024x576) [179.5 KB] || SDO_Year6_HCblend_UHD.png (3840x2160) [19.7 MB] || SDO_Year6_HCblend_UHD.jpg (3840x2160) [1.2 MB] || SDO_Year6_HCblend_HD_searchweb.png (180x320) [59.6 KB] || SDO_Year6_HCblend_HD_thm.png (80x40) [4.8 KB] || 12144_SDO_Year_6_appletv.webm (1280x720) [50.5 MB] || 12144_SDO_Year_6_appletv.m4v (1280x720) [241.9 MB] || 12144_SDO_Year_6_appletv_appletv_subtitles.m4v (1280x720) [242.1 MB] || SDO_Year_6_SRT_Captions.en_US.srt [6.3 KB] || SDO_Year_6_SRT_Captions.en_US.vtt [6.3 KB] || 12144_SDO_Year_6_H264_Good_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [1.4 GB] || 12144_SDO_Year_6_H264_Good_3840x2160_2997.mov (3840x2160) [9.1 GB] || 12144_SDO_Year_6_H264_Good_3840x2160_5994.mov (3840x2160) [10.2 GB] || 12144_SDO_Year_6_ProRes_3840x2160_5994.mov (3840x2160) [50.3 GB] || ", "hits": 100 }, { "id": 11651, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11651/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2014-09-11T08:00:00-04:00", "title": "September 10, 2014 X1.6 flare", "description": "The sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 1:48 p.m. EDT on Sept. 10, 2014. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground. However — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.This flare is classified as an X1.6 class flare. \"X-class\" denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc. || ", "hits": 81 }, { "id": 11522, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11522/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2014-05-07T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "The Best Observed X-class Flare", "description": "On March 29, 2014 the sun released an X-class flare. It was observed by NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS; NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO; NASA's Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager, or RHESSI; the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hinode; and the National Solar Observatory's Dunn Solar Telescope located at Sacramento Peak in New Mexico. To have a record of such an intense flare from so many observatories is unprecedented. Such research can help scientists better understand what catalyst sets off these large explosions on the sun. Perhaps we may even some day be able to predict their onset and forewarn of the radio blackouts solar flares can cause near Earth – blackouts that can interfere with airplane, ship and military communications. || ", "hits": 91 }, { "id": 11286, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11286/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2013-06-04T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "IRIS L-14 Media Briefing", "description": "Lying just above the sun's surface is an enigmatic region of the solar atmosphere called the interface region. A relatively thin region, just 3,000 to 6,000 miles thick, it pulses with movement: zones of different temperature and density are scattered throughout, while energy and heat course through the solar material. Understanding how the energy travels through this region – energy that helps heat the upper layer of the atmosphere, the corona, to temperatures of 1,000,000 kelvins, some thousand times hotter than the sun’s surface itself – is the goal of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, scheduled to launch on June 26, 2013 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. Scientists wish to understand the interface region in exquisite detail, since energy flowing through this region has an effect on so many aspects of near-Earth space. For one thing, despite the intense amount of energy deposited into the interface region, only a fraction leaksthrough, but this fraction drives the solar wind, the constant stream of particles that flows out to fill the entire solar system. The interface region is also the source of most of the sun's ultraviolet emission, which impacts both the near-Earth space environment and Earth's climate. IRIS's capabilities are uniquely tailored to unravel the interface region by providing both high-resolution images and a kind of data known as spectra, which can see many wavelengths at once. For its high-resolution images, IRIS will capture data on about one percent of the sun at a time. While these are relatively small snapshots, IRIS will be able to see very fine features, as small as 150 miles across. || ", "hits": 58 }, { "id": 11255, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11255/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2013-04-22T14:00:00-04:00", "title": "Three Years of SDO Images", "description": "In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun's rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle. This video shows those three years of the sun at a pace of two images per day. Each image is displayed for two frames at a 29.97 frame rate.SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures a shot of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. The images shown here are based on a wavelength of 171 angstroms, which is in the extreme ultraviolet range and shows solar material at around 600,000 Kelvin. In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun's 25-day rotation as well as how solar activity has increased over three years.During the course of the video, the sun subtly increases and decreases in apparent size. This is because the distance between the SDO spacecraft and the sun varies over time. The image is, however, remarkably consistent and stable despite the fact that SDO orbits the Earth at 6,876 miles per hour and the Earth orbits the sun at 67,062 miles per hour.Such stability is crucial for scientists, who use SDO to learn more about our closest star. These images have regularly caught solar flares and coronal mass ejections in the act, types of space weather that can send radiation and solar material toward Earth and interfere with satellites in space. SDO's glimpses into the violent dance on the sun help scientists understand what causes these giant explosions — with the hopes of some day improving our ability to predict this space weather.The four wavelength view at the end of the video shows light at 4500 angstroms, which is basically the visible light view of the sun, and reveals sunspots; light at 193 angstroms which highlights material at 1 million Kelvin and reveals more of the sun's corona; light at 304 angstroms which highlights material at around 50,000 Kelvin and shows features in the transition region and chromosphere of the sun; and light at 171 angstroms.Noteworthy events that appear briefly in the main sequence of this video:00:30;24 Partial eclipse by the moon00:31;16 Roll maneuver01:11;02 August 9, 2011 X6.9 Flare, currently the largest of this solar cycle01:28;07 Comet Lovejoy, December 15, 201101:42;29 Roll Maneuver01:51;07 Transit of Venus, June 5, 201202:28;13 Partial eclipse by the moonWatch this video on YouTube. || ", "hits": 123 }, { "id": 11071, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11071/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2013-01-23T11:30:00-05:00", "title": "SDO Wavelength Graphics", "description": "Specialized instruments, either in ground-based or space-based telescopes, can observe light far beyond the ranges visible to the naked eye. Different wavelengths convey information about different components of the sun's surface and atmosphere, so scientists use them to paint a full picture of our constantly changing and varying star.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, on the other hand, 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 through such telescopes as NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) — scientists can track how particles and heat move through the sun's atmosphere.We see the visible spectrum of light simply because the sun is made up of a hot gas — heat produces light just as it does in an incandescent light bulb. But when it comes to the shorter wavelengths, the sun sends out extreme ultraviolet light and x-rays because it is filled with many kinds of atoms, each of which give off light of a certain wavelength when they reach a certain temperature. Not only does the sun contain many different atoms — helium, hydrogen, iron, for example — but also different kinds of each atom with different electrical charges, known as ions. Each ion can emit light at specific wavelengths when it reaches a particular temperature. Scientists have cataloged which atoms produce which wavelengths since the early 1900s, and the associations are well documented in lists that can take up hundreds of pages.Instruments that produce conventional images of the sun focus exclusively on light around one particular wavelength, sometimes not one that is visible to the naked eye. SDO scientists, for example, chose 10 different wavelengths to observe for its Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument. Each wavelength is largely based on a single, or perhaps two types of ions — though slightly longer and shorter wavelengths produced by other ions are also invariably part of the picture. Each wavelength was chosen to highlight a particular part of the sun's atmosphere.From the sun's surface on out, the wavelengths SDO observes, measured in angstroms, are: 4500: Showing the sun's surface or photosphere. 1700: Shows surface of the sun, as well as a layer of the sun's atmosphere called the chromosphere, which lies just above the photosphere and is where the temperature begins rising. 1600: Shows a mixture between the upper photosphere and what's called the transition region, a region between the chromosphere and the upper most layer of the sun's atmosphere called the corona. The transition region is where the temperature rapidly rises. 304: This light is emitted from the chromosphere and transition region. 171: This wavelength shows the sun's atmosphere, or corona, when it's quiet. It also shows giant magnetic arcs known as coronal loops. 193: Shows a slightly hotter region of the corona, and also the much hotter material of a solar flare. 211: This wavelength shows hotter, magnetically active regions in the sun's corona. 335: This wavelength also shows hotter, magnetically active regions in the corona. 94: This highlights regions of the corona during a solar flare. 131: The hottest material in a flare. || ", "hits": 552 }, { "id": 4009, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4009/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-11-20T10:00:00-05:00", "title": "The Active Sun from SDO: EUV Variability Experiment (EVE)", "description": "The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.The Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Variability Experiment (EVE) measures extreme ultraviolet emission from the solar chromosphere, transition region and corona. This radiation is mostly absorbed in Earth's upper atmosphere and influences Earth's climate.This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. This differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. || ", "hits": 82 }, { "id": 3983, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3983/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-11-20T09:00:00-05:00", "title": "The Active Sun from SDO: 304 Ångstroms", "description": "The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.This movie is generated for a wavelength of 304 Ångstroms (30.4 nanometers) which highlights a spectral line emitted by helium atoms that have lost 1 electron (also known as helium-2 or He II) at temperatures of 50,000 K. This light is emitted from the upper transition region and the chromosphere. Solar prominences are readily visible at this wavelength.This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. || ", "hits": 152 }, { "id": 3985, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3985/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2012-11-20T09:00:00-05:00", "title": "The Active Sun from SDO: 1600 Ångstroms", "description": "The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observes the Sun with many different instruments, in many different wavelengths of light. Many of these capabilities are not possible for ground-based observatories - hence the need for a space-based observing platform.This movie is generated for a wavelength of 1600 Ångstroms (160.0 nanometers) which highlights a spectral line of carbon that has lost 3 electrons (also known as carbon-4 or C-IV) at temperatures of 10,000 K. C IV at these temperatures is present in what's called the transition region between the sun's surface and the lowest levels of the sun's atmosphere, the chromosphere.This visualization is one of a set of visualizations (others linked below) covering the same time span of 17 hours over the full wavelength range of the mission. They are setup to play synchronously on a Hyperwall, or can be run individually.The images are sampled every 36 seconds, 1/3 of the standard time-cadence for SDO. This visualization is useful for illustrating how different solar phenomena, such as sunspots and active regions, look very different in different wavelengths of light. These differences enable scientists to study them more completely, with an eventual goal of improving Space Weather forecasting. || ", "hits": 87 }, { "id": 11089, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11089/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-10-18T14:00:00-04:00", "title": "IRIS Launch, Deploy and Beauty Passes", "description": "Understanding the interface between the photosphere and corona remains a fundamental challenge in solar and heliospheric science. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission opens a window of discovery into this crucial region by tracing the flow of energy and plasma through the chromosphere and transition region into the corona using spectrometry and imaging. IRIS is designed to provide significant new information to increase our understanding of energy transport into the corona and solar wind and provide an archetype for all stellar atmospheres. The unique instrument capabilities, coupled with state of the art 3-D modeling, will fill a large gap in our knowledge of this dynamic region of the solar atmosphere. The mission will extend the scientific output of existing heliophysics spacecraft that follow the effects of energy release processes from the sun to Earth.IRIS will provide key insights into all these processes, and thereby advance our understanding of the solar drivers of space weather from the corona to the far heliosphere, by combining high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy for the entire chromosphere and adjacent regions. IRIS will resolve in space, time, and wavelength the dynamic geometry from the chromosphere to the low-temperature corona to shed much-needed light on the physics of this magnetic interface region. || ", "hits": 31 }, { "id": 40046, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/nasas-heliophysics-gallery/", "result_type": "Gallery", "release_date": "2010-03-04T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "NASA's Heliophysics Gallery", "description": "Heliophysics studies the nature of the Sun and how it influences the very nature of space and the planets and the technology that exists there. Learn more at nasa.gov/sun.", "hits": 308 } ] }