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Solar science satellite successfully sent soaring skywards

NASA has sent the Solar Dynamics Observatory into space. SDO is go!

sdo launch.jpg

A whopping great Atlas V rocket took off with the experiment aboard at 10:23 eastern time today from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

As Lizzie Buchen noted on Nature News last month:

Using a suite of imaging instruments, the SDO will probe the inner workings of the Sun, including how material flowing within it helps to generate its magnetic field and how that energy is released. The findings could help researchers to improve their understanding of the fluctuations in solar activity that can, at their peak, scramble electricity grids and throw Global-Positioning-System devices off by dozens of metres.

For more, read her full story What will the next solar cycle bring?

Image: NASA TV

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