3 ms·
"AR 2192 has now rotated onto the other side of the Sun as of early November, and it's unclear if it will still be around when that part of the star rotates bac
by FoeNyx 12y ago
"AR 2192 has now rotated onto the other side of the Sun as of early November, and it's unclear if it will still be around when that part of the star rotates back to face us again."
Well apparently AR 2192 might be ending its farside trip as soon as tomorrow or the day after (if it still exists of course).
Also something noteworthy from the youtube video description :
"The animation has been rotated 180 degrees so that south is 'up'."
- mturmon 12y agoAbout the rotated animation: The image source is the SDO satellite, which happens to be standing on its head while orbiting the Earth. So, its raw images already came in rotated by 180 degrees. (Well, within 1 degree of 180 anyway -- determining the precise angle is rather difficult[+].) I get the feeling that the person who made the video did not know this, and just made the video by linking the still science images, which are freely available. To anyone who is used to solar imagery, seeing the Sun rotating backward is very disconcerting. To a real specialist, seeing that particular AR upside down is also disorienting. [+] You can't find the Sun's equator or poles very accurately, so I think the instrument team used the transit of Venus (possibly Mercury) between the camera and the Sun to establish the angle calibration.
- danbruc 12y agoWe have STEREO [1] for a glimpse on the far side of the sun. [1] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/main/