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Engineers have found a way to rescue valuable scientific data from a Sun-monitoring spacecraft, despite a serious mechanical problem with its main antenna. By rerouting the transmissions through a secondary antenna normally used to download system information, they hope to lose no more than two percent of data. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) uses a dozen different instruments to image the Sun's surface and coronal activity and to monitor particle flux in the solar wind. But as well as being of interest to solar scientists, SOHO monitors solar flares emitted by the Sun that cause magnetic storms when they...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 April 18 Double Eruptive Prominences Credit: SOHO - EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: Lofted over the Sun on looping magnetic fields, large solar prominences are composed of relatively cool, dense plasma. When seen against the brilliant solar disk they appear as dark filaments, but these enormous magnetic structures are bright themselves when viewed against the blackness of space as they arc above the Sun's edge In a...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 March 18 Coronal Holes on the Sun Credit: SOHO - EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: The ominous, dark shapes haunting the left side of the Sun are coronal holes -- low density regions extending above the surface where the solar magnetic field opens freely into interplanetary space. Studied extensively from space since the 1960s in ultraviolet and x-ray light, coronal holes are known to be the source...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 24 Comet Neat Passes an Erupting Sun Credit: SOHO Consortium, LASCO, ESA, NASA Explanation: As Comet NEAT flared last week, the Sun roared. Just as the comet swooped inside the orbit of Mercury and developed a long and flowing tail of gas and dust, the Sun emitted a huge Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). Neither the fortuitous hot ball of solar gas nor the intense glare of...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 23 A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence Credit: SOHO Consortium, EIT, ESA, NASA Explanation: A huge eruptive prominence is seen moving out from our Sun in this condensed half-hour time-lapse sequence. Ten Earths could easily fit in the "claw" of this seemingly solar monster. This large prominence, though, is significant not only for its size, but its shape. The twisted figure eight shape indicates that a complex...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 30 Comet Kudo-Fujikawa: Days in the Sun Credit: SOHO - LASCO Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: Cruising through the inner Solar System, new Comet Kudo-Fujikawa reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, yesterday, January 29. Passing within 28.4 million kilometers of the Sun, this comet came much closer than innermost planet Mercury basking only 57.9 million kilometers from our parent star. So close to the Sun,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 21 Solstice Celebration Credit: SOHO - EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: Aloha and Season's greetings! On December 22nd, at 01:14 Universal Time (December 21, 3:14pm Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time), the Sun reaches its southernmost point in planet Earth's sky marking the final season change for the year 2002. In celebration, consider this delightfully detailed, brightly colored image of the active Sun. From the EIT instrument onboard the...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 July 18 Sunspot Region 30 Credit: MDI, SOHO, ESA, NASA Explanation: The solar active region designated number 10030 (or simply region 30) is now appearing on the visible hemisphere of the closest star. Dwarfed by the Sun's disk, the group of sunspots which make up region 30 actually cover an enormous area -- nearly 10 times the size of Earth. The panels above were recorded July 15,...

GOTTA SEE THIS -- SATELLITE IMAGING DURING OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM 7/10/02 BREAKING NEWS - The Big Picture: Fires and Rockets of July around the World and Universe ===== ROCKETS OF JULY 2002 ====== In Nizhny Tagil, 800 miles east of Moscow, a Russian-made Smerch 300 mm Multiple Launch Rocket System fires a rocket during an exhibition 7/9/02. Russia's weapons export agency Rosoboron unfortunately continues to offer this and other war technology to Iran. Better get your act together, Ivan. Kourou space base, French Guyana - European rocket Ariane 5 lifts off 7/6/02 with the European communication satellite Stellat-5 and the...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 May 16 Double Trouble Solar Bubbles Credit: SOHO Consortium, LASCO, EIT ESA, NASA Explanation: During April and May, attention has been focused on the western evening sky, presenting its spectacle of bright planets and crescent moons shortly after sunset. Meanwhile, the Sun itself has not been just sinking quietly below the horizon. For example on May 2nd, two enormous clouds of energetic particles blasted away from the...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 March 21 S is for Sun Credit: SOHO - EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA Explanation: Taken yesterday from the SOHO spacecraft, this false-color image shows the active Sun near the March Equinox, the beginning of Fall in the south and Spring in the northern hemisphere. Recorded in a band of extreme ultraviolet light emitted by highly ionized iron atoms, the Sun's upper atmosphere or solar corona shines with...