Sun  ID: 11183

Sharper Image

Story by Karen Fox Released on February 7, 2013
Download Options
A 10-minute rocket ride brought back the most detailed pictures of the sun ever taken.
On July 11, 2012, NASA launched a sounding rocket that carried a solar telescope on a 620-second flight to space and back. About a minute into the ride, the rocket—called Hi-C, for High-Resolution Coronal imager—reached an altitude where Earth's atmosphere no longer blocked the extreme ultraviolet light the telescope was designed to observe. From this vantage point, Hi-C snapped images that revealed the dynamic structure of the super-hot solar atmosphere in five times sharper detail than ever before. Hi-C captured details 135 miles across; the previous record-holder, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), captures details about 675 miles across. Watch the video to see a side-by-side comparison of imagery from Hi-C and SDO.
Download Options
Hi-C could only observe a small part of the sun at once, but captured images five times more detailed than those from SDO.
Download Options
Weighing 464 pounds, the six-foot-long Hi-C telescope took 165 images during its brief, 620-second flight.
Download Options
Scientists have worked for the better part of a decade to design, build and test the Hi-C optics (shown above).
Download Options
Launched from New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range, the Hi-C payload and subsystems rest on the desert floor after parachuting back to Earth.
Download Options
Members of the Hi-C team pose with the payload in the desert.

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Producer:
Scott Wiessinger (USRA)

Lead Writer:
Karen Fox (ADNET Systems, Inc.)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Payload images courtesy of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11183

Keywords:
NASA Science >> Sun
SVS >> App