These images are just astounding . . .
April 21, 2010: Warning, the images you are about to see could take your breath away.
At a press conference today in Washington DC, researchers unveiled “First Light” images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a space telescope designed to study the sun.
“SDO is working beautifully,” reports project scientist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center. “This is even better than we could have dreamed.”
Launched on February 11th from Cape Canaveral, the observatory has spent the past two months moving into a geosynchronous orbit and activating its instruments. As soon as SDO’s telescope doors opened, the spacecraft began beaming back scenes so beautiful and puzzlingly complex that even seasoned observers were stunned.
Be sure to click on the image above to view full-size and then go to the SDO Website.
Wow is right!
I helped build the radiometers on the COBE spacecraft when I worked at Hughes. It never sent back pix, though, just streams of data!
HAC is where I started my aerospace career. Most of the projects I worked on were defense toys like the night vision stuff in the M1 Abrams that could see Saddam’s Republican Guard tanks from a distance outside the range of their weapons. Sitting ducks as it were.
The COBE instrumentation led to most of the current understanding about the “Big Bang.” I posted a NASA video that takes the observer out of the solar system and back in time to the Bang. It’s called Back to the Bang.
That resembles a Bean Burrito Singularity I experienced a few months ago. Ruined a brand new pair of Wranglers on that one…
Word for those of us who are older is to never trust a fart, sig . . .
Been there done that except mine was only a supernova.