Amazing Videos of the Awakening Sun

Our sun has been unexpectedly quiet these past few years.  Where there should be increasing sunspot number and solar flare activity, in line with the well-known 11-year solar cycle, there’s been not much of anything.   Which has puzzled scientists.

But over the last few months, astronomers have observed more sunspot and prominence activity.  So it looks like the sun is finally waking up.

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This long-overdue activity nicely coincides with the launch of NASA’s most advanced solar science satellite, the Solar Dyanamics Observatory (SDO).  This new satellite can take high-resolution images of the sun every 0.75 seconds, and send 1.5 terabytes of data back to Earth each day… the equivalent of almost 400 full-length digitized movies.

The images from the initial test last week were absolutely stunning.

If you’re stuck at the office and can’t fit a solar observing session into your day, then check this short video from the SDO.  The satellite used an extreme UV filter (and other filters, as noted) to accentuate the light from hot ionized helium.  If you can’t get out to see the sun for yourself through a safely-equipped telescope, this an ideal substitute for armchair solar astronomers.

And if you want to get a good view for yourself, get a white-light solar filter for your scope.  Or get an even better view with an hydrogen alpha filter.  And get out and see a star for yourself, close up.