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The Kid Should See This

Jewel Box Sun: Invisible wavelengths of light translated into colors

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From NASA Goddard, Jewel Box Sun, a surprising video that illuminates how NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) converts a wide range of invisible wavelengths into colorized images that our human eyes can see. 

“As the colors sweep around the sun in the movie, viewers should note how different the same area of the sun appears. This happens because each wavelength of light represents solar material at specific temperatures. 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.”

jewel box sun
Related reading: Is the sun white or yellow? It’s a hot debate, and everyone’s wrong.

There are more Solar Dynamics Observatory videos in the archives.

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