cozydark: Sounding Rocket Mission to Observe Magnetic Fields On the Sun | On July 5, NASA launched a mission called the Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation or SUMI, to study the intricate, constantly changing magnetic fields on the sun in a hard-to-observe area of the sun’s low atmosphere called the chromosphere. Magnetic fields, and the intense magnetic energy they help marshal, lie at the heart of how the sun can create huge explosions of light such as solar flares and eruptions of particles such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). While there are already instruments — both on the ground and flying in space — that can measure these fields, each is constrained to observe the fields on a particular layer of the sun’s surface or atmosphere. Moreover, none of them can see the layer SUMI will observe. “What’s novel with this instrument is that it observes ultraviolet light, when all the others look at infrared or visible light,” says Jonathan Cirtain, a solar scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. and the principal investigator for SUMI. “Those wavelengths of light correspond to the lowest levels in the sun’s atmosphere, but SUMI will look at locations higher in the chromosphere.” The chromosphere is a narrow layer above the photosphere that raises in temperature with height. Normally, it can’t be seen by the naked eye because the light from the photosphere of the Sun overpowers it. The coloring of the chromosphere (deep red) is caused by the immense hydrogen supply it contains. continue reading
Pop-upView Separately

cozydark:

Sounding Rocket Mission to Observe Magnetic Fields On the Sun |

On July 5, NASA launched a mission called the Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation or SUMI, to study the intricate, constantly changing magnetic fields on the sun in a hard-to-observe area of the sun’s low atmosphere called the chromosphere.

Magnetic fields, and the intense magnetic energy they help marshal, lie at the heart of how the sun can create huge explosions of light such as solar flares and eruptions of particles such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). While there are already instruments — both on the ground and flying in space — that can measure these fields, each is constrained to observe the fields on a particular layer of the sun’s surface or atmosphere. Moreover, none of them can see the layer SUMI will observe.

“What’s novel with this instrument is that it observes ultraviolet light, when all the others look at infrared or visible light,” says Jonathan Cirtain, a solar scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. and the principal investigator for SUMI. “Those wavelengths of light correspond to the lowest levels in the sun’s atmosphere, but SUMI will look at locations higher in the chromosphere.”

The chromosphere is a narrow layer above the photosphere that raises in temperature with height. Normally, it can’t be seen by the naked eye because the light from the photosphere of the Sun overpowers it. The coloring of the chromosphere (deep red) is caused by the immense hydrogen supply it contains. continue reading

(via thescienceofreality)

Source: nasa.gov

59 Notes/ Hide

  1. thekingsthoughts reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  2. climate-changing reblogged this from psychedelicmandala
  3. psychedelicmandala reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  4. aloneindaastros reblogged this from aimlessinspace
  5. starkiller1701 reblogged this from understandingtheuniverse and added:
    (via imgTumble)
  6. aimlessinspace reblogged this from abcstarstuff
  7. abcstarstuff reblogged this from understandingtheuniverse
  8. young-kinderhook reblogged this from theprinceofamber
  9. ofstars reblogged this from cozydark
  10. betocalo reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  11. stardustandwands reblogged this from cozydark
  12. inthespacefarawayfromthisplanet reblogged this from imagineatoms
  13. ihaveasorethroat reblogged this from cozydark
  14. purple-cosmos reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  15. nosce-hostem reblogged this from imagineatoms
  16. imagineatoms reblogged this from understandingtheuniverse
  17. infinitecircuit reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  18. 3mro1990 reblogged this from cozydark
  19. callmelogic reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  20. thismightbemylife reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  21. dr-jon-crane reblogged this from cozydark
  22. chadmagiera reblogged this from cozydark
  23. theprinceofamber reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  24. astudyinspock reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  25. bunhouse reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  26. understandingtheuniverse reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  27. shark-butt-soup reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  28. nightlypost reblogged this from thescienceofreality
  29. thescienceofreality reblogged this from neuronsandneutrons
  30. squattingsquirrel reblogged this from cozydark
  31. neuronsandneutrons reblogged this from cozydark
  32. capriconian reblogged this from cozydark
  33. enkidurgah reblogged this from cozydark