NASA shares SDO's 'stunning' solar images in different wavelengths of light: Watch

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory or SDO has kept a constant eye on the Sun, observing and capturing its dynamic activities in space that impact the entire solar system, including the Earth. The telescope has recorded hundreds of millions of images of the Sun with a wide range of wavelengths, otherwise invisible to the naked eye. “Different wavelengths convey information about different components of the sun's surface and atmosphere, so scientists use them to paint a full picture of our constantly changing and varying star,” explains NASA. The space administration released the vibrant images of the sun in different colour captured by the SDO at13 different wavelengths of light. Each image shows the Sun’ material at distinct temperatures, all the while highlighting its various features.

“The sun emits light in all colours, but since yellow is the brightest wavelength from the sun, that is the colour we see with our naked eye -- which the camera represents since one should never look directly at the sun. When all the visible colours are summed together, scientists call this white light,” NASA said, as it elaborated on why the images appear in various other colours.

[Credits: NASA/SDO/GSFC]

According to NASA scientists, the Sun’s yellow-green light of 5500 Angstroms, for example, generally emanates from material of about 10,000 degrees, which in turn represents the surface of the sun. The extreme ultraviolet light of 94 Angstroms, meanwhile, comes from atoms that are about 11 million degrees. This particularly is a good wavelength for looking at solar flares, which can reach such high temperatures. 

“By examining pictures of the sun in a variety of wavelengths – as is done through such telescopes as NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), as well as NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) -- scientists can track how particles and heat move through the sun's atmosphere,” NASA stated. 

One can see the colourful visible spectrum of light as the sun is composed of hot gas, and the heat modifies temperature and produces light just as it does in an incandescent light bulb. During the shorter wavelengths, the sun sends out extreme ultraviolet light and x-rays because it is filled with many kinds of atoms, each of which gives off light of a certain wavelength when they reach a certain temperature, according to NASA. But the sun’s atoms’ charged particles known as ions can emit light at specific wavelengths when it reaches a particular temperature, giving rise to different colours.

SDO also observes the solar surface to measure the magnetic field and the study of the solar atmosphere to understand how its magnetic energy influences the weather. It also measures the extreme ultraviolet irradiance of the Sun that is a key driver to the structure and composition of the Earth’s upper atmosphere.