SDO?s Crazy-Looking Sun Due to Syzygy

The Sun, as seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory during an 'eclipse' spacecraft slips behind Earth. Credit: NASA/SDO

It looks like something is eating the Sun in recent pictures from the Solar Dynamics Observatory — and in recent SDO videos, the Sun suddenly disappears! What is going on? Could it be aliens, Planet X, or the Great Galactic Ghoul? Nope, just orbital mechanics and syzygy (an alignment of three celestial objects). At this time of year the Sun, Earth, and the SDO spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit line up, creating syzygencially spectacular Sun-Earth eclipses. The folks from SDO explain it this way:
(...)
Read the rest of SDO’s Crazy-Looking Sun Due to Syzygy (107 words)

---

© nancy for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Solar Dynamics Observatory, sun

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Full story at http://www.universetoday.com/84581/sdos-crazy-looking-sun-due-to-syzygy/