February 10, 2020 - Dynamic Decade
Dynamic Decade Launched ten years ago this week, the Solar Dynamics Observatory is part of a NASA program designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. SDO is helping us understand the Sun’s influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. Scientists are learning how the Sun’s magnetic field is generated and structured, and how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance. Seen here is a group of post-coronal loops, charged particles that are spinning along the magnetic field lines following a coronal mass ejection event in 2017.
Image credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA
Weekly Calendar
February 10 - 16, 2020
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 10
Mercury at greatest elongation (18° E)
Moon at perigee
1990: Galileo spacecraft passes by Venus on its way to Jupiter
1992: First Atlas II launch
Tuesday 11
1970: First Japanese satellite launched
1984: STS-41B Challenger makes first shuttle landing at KSC
1997: STS-82 Discovery launched
2000: STS-99 Endeavour launched
2010: Solar Dynamics Observatory launched
Wednesday 12
1963: NASA selects contractor to build the Crawler Transporter
1974: Mars 5 enters orbit around Mars
2001: NEAR-Shoemaker lands on asteroid Eros
Thursday 13
Juno stationary
Juno 0.6° south of Moon
1852: Johan Dreyer born
1937: Sigmund Jähn born, first German to fly in space
Friday 14
Valentine’s Day
1972: Luna 20 launched
1980: Solar Max launched
1990: Voyager 1 takes solar system "family portrait"
2000: NEAR-Shoemaker orbits asteroid Eros
Saturday 15
Last Qtr Moon 5:17 PM ET
1564: Galileo Galilei born
1973: Pioneer 10 becomes first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt
2013: Meteor explodes over Chelyabinsk, Russia injuring 1,500 people
Sunday 16
Mercury stationary
1948: Gerard Kuiper discovers Miranda, moon of Uranus
1965: Saturn SA-9 launched