HESSI SPACECRAFT ANIMATION - The Sun has a mystery that scientists would
like to unravel. It can take magnetic energy and turn it into a stunningly powerful
blast of heat, light, and radiation. The HESSI spacecraft will produce unprecedented
high-fidelity movies of flares in their highest-energy emissions, finally allowing
scientists to unlock the secrets of how these awesome detonations are generated.
HESSI is scheduled to launch June 7, 2001, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,
FL, on a Pegasus rocket.
SUPER: NASA
Click
here for animation of Solar Max and Min
Solar Max - Scientists
are launching HESSI during "solar max," the period where the most intense
flares occur. HESSI is expected to gather data on thousands of flares during its
two-to-three-year mission. Working together with a fleet of other spacecraft -
Yohkoh, SOHO, GOES and TRACE for flare radiation and WIND, ACE, Ulysses, and Voyager
for particle detection - HESSI will provide a vital insight into the impulsive
energy release and particle acceleration processes at the Sun. Solar max can be
seen in this comparison of 1996 and 2000 SOHO solar images.
SUPER: NASA
/ ESA
Click
here for animation of Bastille Day Flare
Bastille Day Flare
- Close-Up - This close-up view of the "Bastille Day" flare was
captured by NASA's Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft on
July 14, 2000.
Click
here for animation of Vibrating Coronal Loops
Vibrating Coronal
Loops - Huge loops and coils of heated coronal gas vibrate like a piano string
hit by its hammer following the blast wave from a solar flare. It is those vibrations,
which heat the corona to intense temperatures, often many times hotter than the
surface of the sun itself. Recent observations by the Transition Region and Coronal
Explorer (TRACE) spacecraft indicate that the corona may be millions of times
more viscous than previously expected, thus explaining why the medium of solar
plasma has a higher than expected level of molecular friction.
