Sun-watching SOHO Back in Style
Scientists are receiving good data from the Sun-watching Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO for short. Starting in late June, a
hardware glitch in pointing the spacecraft's high-gain antenna has called for
creative solutions by ground operators to keep data flowing to Earth.
SOHO is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European
Space Agency to study the Sun, from its deep core to the outer corona, and
the solar wind.
Instruments are now sending back data to ground operators and the first
images were received last week, said Paal Brekke, SOHO Deputy Project
Scientist for the European Space Agency. This includes the Michelson Doppler
Imager (MDI) white light that
shows a large sunspot close to the center of the Sun, he said.
In addition, SOHO transmitted a coronagraph image to Earth on July 2nd
showing the planet Mercury and Saturn. Using an opaque disk to block the
Sun's glare, SOHO coronagraphs can photograph the solar corona as well as
stars and planets too near the Sun to see from Earth, Brekke told SPACE.com.
-- Leonard David |