APOD: 2020 August 19 – The Sun Rotating

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "The Sun Rotating." The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched in February 2010 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SDO allows us to better understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. We see direct evidence of this capability in the featured 2:21 video clip. The Sun takes just under one month to rotate completely, and an entire month's worth of data is shown in the video. The larger image of the Sun (left) is shown in ultraviolet light, and a smaller image (upper right) is visible light. The remaining images are color-coded to highlight x-ray emissions from iron atoms present at different heights in the corona. SDO operates from a geosynchronous orbit to enable continual observation of the Sun.