WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:05.080
[Music throughout] Announcer: T-minus 10, 9, 8

2
00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:09.080
7. 6. 5. 4. go for main engine start.

3
00:00:09.080 --> 00:00:13.080
3. 2. 1. 0.

4
00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:17.080
and ignition and liftoff of the Atlas V with the

5
00:00:17.080 --> 00:00:21.080
Solar Dynamics Observatory.

6
00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:25.080
Narrator: SDO, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, launched on February 11th,

7
00:00:25.080 --> 00:00:29.080
2010 and has been watching the Sun for the last 10 years.

8
00:00:29.080 --> 00:00:33.080
providing key insights into what drives the Sun’s activity, including the

9
00:00:33.080 --> 00:00:37.080
space weather that our astronauts and spacecraft must travel through.

10
00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:41.080
During that time, it has witnessed incredible solar events and enabled scientists

11
00:00:41.080 --> 00:00:45.080
to make many groundbreaking discoveries about the Sun. Here are

12
00:00:45.080 --> 00:00:49.080
some of the highlights. In 2011, scientists spotted

13
00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:53.080
a special kind of ripple on the Sun called Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, which look

14
00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:57.080
like curling ocean waves. They are also present on the Earth,

15
00:00:57.080 --> 00:01:01.080
but aren’t the size of the United States. On June 7th,

16
00:01:01.080 --> 00:01:05.080
2011. SDO spotted a huge eruption of plasma on the Sun.

17
00:01:05.080 --> 00:01:09.080
This was the first time such a large event had been captured in such fine

18
00:01:09.080 --> 00:01:13.080
detail. Two months later, on August 9th, SDO

19
00:01:13.080 --> 00:01:17.080
observed one of the most powerful flares of this solar cycle. Flares are

20
00:01:17.080 --> 00:01:21.080
intense bursts of radiation caused by the release of magnetic energy.

21
00:01:21.080 --> 00:01:25.080
SDO records in many different wavelengths, including one tuned

22
00:01:25.080 --> 00:01:29.080
to some of the hottest parts of the Sun, allowing it to see the full extent of

23
00:01:29.080 --> 00:01:33.080
these solar explosions. On December 15th,

24
00:01:33.080 --> 00:01:37.080
Comet Lovejoy seemed to survive a close pass of the Sun, but broke apart

25
00:01:37.080 --> 00:01:41.000
a few days later. In 2012, scientists used

26
00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:45.080
SDO's wealth of information to create a new, and impressionistic,

27
00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:49.000
way to further understand temperature change on the Sun.

28
00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:53.080
On June 5th, Venus transited the face of the Sun, an event

29
00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:57.080
so rare it won’t happen again until 2117.

30
00:01:57.080 --> 00:02:01.080
In July, SDO’s high resolution and rapid imaging

31
00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:05.080
cadence captured a beautiful solar loop, where hot plasma condensed

32
00:02:05.080 --> 00:02:09.080
out of the atmosphere, or corona, and “stuck” to the strong magnetic

33
00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:13.080
fields pushing through the surface. On August 31st,

34
00:02:13.080 --> 00:02:17.080
the Sun had a huge and beautiful prominence eruption that instantly became

35
00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:21.080
iconic. Early in 2013,

36
00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:25.080
SDO imagery helped astronomers see the early formation of

37
00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:29.080
a coronal mass ejection, or CME, and the reconnection events that

38
00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:33.080
result in solar flares. CMEs release giant plumes of

39
00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:37.080
material from the Sun that speed across the solar system. They

40
00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:41.080
can interact with Earth’s magnetic environment and are hazardous to spacecraft and

41
00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:45.080
astronauts. The Sun was very active in

42
00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:49.080
September and October, first forming what almost looked like a canyon and then crackling

43
00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:53.080
with flares and CMEs for a week.

44
00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:57.080
Comet ISON made its way around the Sun on November 28th, Thanksgiving Day,

45
00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:01.080
but unlike Lovejoy, it broke apart immediately.

46
00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:05.080
The Sun remained active in 2014, with many beautiful prominence eruptions

47
00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:09.080
and bright flares. SDO worked in tandem with the new

48
00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:13.080
satellite, IRIS, to help study these flashes.

49
00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:17.080
On December 19th, just in time for the holidays, the Sun

50
00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:21.080
put on its final light show of the year.

51
00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:25.080
The Sun has a cycle of activity, lasting an average of 11 years,

52
00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:29.080
called the solar cycle. 2015 marked the beginning

53
00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:33.080
of the decrease in this cycle with fewer flares and eruptions.

54
00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:37.080
On May 10th, 2016,

55
00:03:37.080 --> 00:03:41.080
SDO saw another transit, this time from Mercury. It looks much

56
00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:45.080
smaller because not only is the planet smaller than Venus, it’s also farther

57
00:03:45.080 --> 00:03:49.080
away from Earth, where SDO is orbiting at 22,000 miles

58
00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:53.080
above the surface in a geosynchronous orbit.

59
00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:57.080
The solar cycle had its last gasp of activity in 2017.

60
00:03:57.080 --> 00:04:01.080
In July, a large sunspot made its way across the face

61
00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:05.080
as the Sun rotated. Then in September, a final burst

62
00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:09.080
of flare activity, including the strongest flares since 2001,

63
00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:13.080
exploded off the Sun. Since this activity,

64
00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:17.080
the Sun has been pretty quiet, sinking into the lowest point of the

65
00:04:17.080 --> 00:04:21.080
solar activity cycle. Scientists were still able to go back through

66
00:04:21.080 --> 00:04:25.080
old SDO data and discover a new kind of explosion, called forced

67
00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:29.080
magnetic reconnection. On November 11th, 2019,

68
00:04:29.080 --> 00:04:33.080
Mercury transited across the Sun again, this time with a much more

69
00:04:33.080 --> 00:04:37.080
sedate backdrop. SDO scientists

70
00:04:37.080 --> 00:04:41.080
are aiming to continue watching the Sun for at least another three years,

71
00:04:41.080 --> 00:04:45.080
and the spacecraft could even last another decade. During

72
00:04:45.080 --> 00:04:49.080
this time it should witness the rise of the next solar cycle and an increase in

73
00:04:49.080 --> 00:04:53.080
solar activity. Without a doubt, SDO’s last

74
00:04:53.080 --> 00:04:57.080
ten years changed how we looked at, and thought about, our nearest star.

75
00:04:57.080 --> 00:05:01.080
Who knows what the next ten might bring?

76
00:05:01.080 --> 00:05:05.000
[Music]

77
00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:12.620
[Music]

78
00:05:12.620 --> 00:05:12.619
[Music]