The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) space telescope has taken and released the 100 millionth image of the sun.
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched in February 2010 as part of the "Living with a Star" program. Since then, the SDO has been observing the sun on a regular basis and provided valuable information to scientists. At the same time, the SDO has also been taking marvelous images of the star.
"SDO has provided images of the sun to help scientists better understand how the roiling corona gets to temperatures some 1,000 times hotter than the sun's surface, what causes giant eruptions such as solar flares, and why the sun's magnetic fields are constantly on the move," NASA stated.
The space agency revealed that on Jan. 19 at 12:49 p.m. EST, the SDO captured the 100 millionth image of the sun using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), which has four telescopes that capture about eight images of the sun every 12 seconds.
The AIA, along with two other instruments, the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment and Helioseismic Magnetic Imager, sends 1.5 terabytes (TB) of data to scientists on Earth on a daily basis. However, the AIA sends about 50 percent of the data. Each day, the AIA clicks around 57,600 detailed pictures of the sun and transmits them to Earth.
The SDO is designed to study the magnetic field fluctuations of the sun and the resultant solar weather. The sun blasts solar flares on a regular basis, and the SDO has been giving information about these flares to scientists so that they can be well prepared.
While solar flares are harmful and emit radiation, they cannot penetrate through Earth's atmosphere. However, strong solar flares can disrupt satellite signals and communication systems on Earth.
NASA revealed that the SDO captured the first solar flare of 2015 on Jan. 12. The mid-level (M-level) solar flare was not intense enough to interfere with communication signals on Earth.
To celebrate the 100 millionth image taken by the SDO, NASA has released a collection of some of the best images taken by the observatory.
