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WATCH: NASA shows awesome HD pictures of the Sun

Remarkable images showing solar events relayed 150 kilometers to Earth

By ToI Staff 25 June 2015, 7:14 pm

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A high-definition image of the sun, released by NASA, June 2015 (YouTube screenshot)

A new NASA exhibit takes viewers up extraordinarily close and personal to the sun.

High-definition images are on show at the US space agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, having been taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) — an ultra-sophisticated telescope, equipped with high-speed cameras, that was sent into space in 2010.

The images are relayed the 93 million miles from the Sun to the Earth via a new installation called the Solarium, Reuters reported.

“The point of the Solarium is really to give people an immersive feel for the scale, the size, and the dynamics and complexity of the Sun,” it quoted the Goddard center’s Dr. Alex Young saying.

With the SDO and its cameras in place, scientists can see solar events, including eruptions of brightness and plasma from the surface of the Sun, as they unfold, and understand more about the potential implications for Earth.

The photos themselves are awe-inspiring, said Gena Duderstein, the Solarium project manager. “It really brings together that both art and science are forms of exploration,” Duderstein told Reuters. “I think we all could use a break from our busy lives every now and then just to have a moment of awe.”