NASA launches spacecraft to study the sun
February 12th, 2010 - 12:07 am ICT by BNO NewsCAPE CARAVERAL, FLORIDA – NASA announced the launching of their Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) from Florida to further study the sun on Thursday.
The SDO took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 41 aboard an Atlas V rocket at 10:23 a.m. EsT on an unparalleled mission to begin a detailed exploration of the sun’s inner workings.
NASA’s heliophysics spacecraft, SDO, will be taking images of the sun every 0.75 seconds, sending back approximately 1.5 terabytes of data to Earth on a daily basis, which is roughly the equivalent of streaming 380 full-length movies.
Considering the sun’s effect on the Earth, part of the objectives of the mission is to “explore activity on the sun that may disable satellites, cause power grid failures, and disrupt GPS communications,” NASA said. “SDO also will provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and climate.”
The SDO is NASA’s most anticipated asset within its science program called Living With A Star, which will provide new information regarding the affects that the sun and the solar system has on Earth.
“This is going to be sensational,” said Richard R. Fisher, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “SDO is going to make a huge step forward in our understanding of the sun and its effects on life and society,” he added.
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