2001 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| YOHKOH CELEBRATES A DECADE OF SOLAR DISCOVERY | G01-055A | 09/17/01 | 00:05:00 | Japanese for "sunbeam", the Yohkoh spacecraft celebrates 10 years of front-row seats for watching enormously powerful explosions called flares on the Sun. Traveling in a 96-minute, nearly-circular Earth orbit, Yohkoh detects high-energy radiation from the Sun throughout its solar cycle. It is the first spacecraft to continuously observe the Sun in X-rays over an entire cycle (about 11 years) in which the Sun goes from a period of numerous intense storms and sunspots to a period of relative calm and then back again.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): The Amazing Changing Sun - One of Yohkoh's main purposes is to study high-energy solar flares to scrutinize where and how the energy is released and particle acceleration takes place. This is a compilation of stills showing the complete solar cycle as seen by Yohkoh from 1991 through 2001. The maximum point of the cycle is regarded as 2000-2001. Yohkoh is a mission of NASA and the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS).
Courtesy: NASA/ISAS
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| ITEM (2): Two Years of Solar Viewing - On a quiet day of few to no flares, Yohkoh's telescope has been used to image the Sun's million-degree atmosphere to study how the hot gases evolve, interact and change their magnetic structure on both small and global scales. The result has been the discovery of new flaring phenomena and insight into the heating and expansion of the high-temperature material.
Courtesy: NASA/ISAS
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| ITEM (3): Singling Out Sigmoids - Yohkoh observed S-shaped structures called sigmoids that produce ejections of material from the Sun (G99-013). The sigmoids were the subject of a NASA Space Science Update in March, 1999. Trans-equatorial interconnecting loops (TILs) are also likely sites of solar eruptions. Understanding these can help astronomers to understand and begin to predict "space weather."
Courtesy: NASA/ISAS
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| ITEM (4): The Spacecraft & Launch - Yohkoh carries four instruments, each for observing various kinds of X-rays depending on their wavelength or energy. Its Soft X-ray Telescope (SXT) carries the longest-operating Charge Coupled Device (CCD) camera in space, having shot over 6 million pictures. Launched on August 30, 1991, Yohkoh is a Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences mission with the cooperation of the United States and the United Kingdom. Yohkoh will continue to operate as long as it stays in orbit - likely until 2010. Courtesy: NASA/ISAS
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