NASA, on the other hand, has been staring straight into the sun for years now. The agency launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in 2010 to capture images of the sun, which it does every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths. Scientists are using the SDO to learn more about the sun and to improve predictions for solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can affect satellites orbiting Earth.

In the three years since its launch, the SDO has observed the sun as it ramps up to “solar maximum,” which is the peak of the star’s 11-year solar activity cycle. To demonstrate this increase in the sun’s activity, NASA this week released a video that puts together many of the images taken by the SDO. The time-lapsed video shows two images of the sun per day for three years. It also has some nice background music (“A Lady’s Errand of Love” by Martin Lass).

The evidence comes from the highest resolution images of the sun‘s corona ever taken. The photos were taken by NASA’s High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) telescope.

“Scientists have tried for decades to understand how the sun’s dynamic atmosphere is heated to millions of degrees,” said Jonathan Cirtain, Hi-C principal investigator and a heliophysicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “Because of the level of solar activity, we were able to clearly focus on an active sunspot, and obtain some remarkable images. Seeing this for the first time is a major advance in understanding how our sun continuously generates the vast amount of energy needed to heat its atmosphere.”

Cirtain and his colleagues assert that the new findings could lead to better predictions for space weather, since the sun’s magnetic field drives solar eruptions that can reach the Earth and potentially disrupt satellites.

The Hi-C telescope is a sub-orbital satellite that flew for only 10 minutes in July 2012. During that time, it took 165 photos of an active region of the sun’s corona. New optics grinding and surface polishing techniques were developed for the Hi-C’s mirrors. The telescope’s resolution is around five times that of the one aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which already takes amazingly high-definition pictures of the sun.

“The Hi-C observations are part of a technology demonstration that will enable a future generation of telescopes to solve the fundamental questions concerning the heating of the solar atmosphere and the origins of space weather, “said Jeffrey Newmark, sounding rocket program scientist at NASA Headquarters.

(Image courtesy NASA)

With HDTV, customers were often left watching nature footage and landscapes. With the 4K TV revolution just starting, TV manufacturers are going to need some content that shows customers what they’re missing with their crappy 1080p displays. Luckily, NASA has a suggestion.

Astronomers at NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) for some time have been using an Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and Helioseismic Magnetic Imager (HMI) to take ultra high-definition images twice as large as anything seen on the displays at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Every second.

As of last month, the SDO had taken 100 million images. NASA bragged that if they were watched at 30 frame sper second there would be enough footage to watch eight hours a day for nearly four months. That’s a lot of staring at the sun.

It’s unclear whether NASA is actually promising 4K content for showrooms or whether the agency just used the excuse of CES to show off its SDO photos. Either way, more SDO images and video, mostly of solar eruptions and flares, can be found on NASA’s SDO website.

(Image courtesy NASA/GSFC/SDO)

On December 31, a massive solar eruption twisted up from the surface of the sun, propelled by swirling magnetic forces. The eruption extended around 160,000 miles out from the surface of the sun, or 20 times the diameter of the Earth. It lasted from 10:20 am to 2:20 pm EST.

Luckily for fans of space images, NASA‘s Solar Dynamic Observatory was not on holiday. The observatory caught the event in ultraviolet light. The video below shows the event from its explosive beginning to its serene finale, when wisps of plasma “gently” fell back to the sun’s surface. Every image in the video is 36 seconds apart.

(Image and video courtesy NASA/SDO/Steele Hill)

The study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, estimates that the five planets have masses between two and six times that of Earth. This makes it the lowest-mass planetary system yet discovered. One of the planets, with a mass of about five times that of Earth, lies in the habitable zone of the Tau Ceti system, the smallest planet yet found in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.

The habitable zone of a star is defined as the area around a star where a planet could have liquid water on its surface. Just because a planet lies in the habitable zone of a system doesn’t mean it is Earth-like, however. Both Mars and Venus are within the habitable zone of our solar system, though their atmospheres don’t allow for liquid water.

“We are now glimpsing for the first time the secrets of our nearest companion stars and their previously hidden reservoirs of potentially habitable planets,” said Paul Butler, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science. “This work presages the time when we will be able to directly see these planets, and search them for water, carbon dioxide, methane, and other signposts of life.”

Astronomers used a new technique to detect the planets, applying “intensive” modeling to data collected from over 6,000 observations of Tau Ceti. The research team was able to find signals half the size of what was previously possible, increasing the sensitivity of small planet searches and discovering Tau Ceti’s satellites.

“We pioneered new data modeling techniques by adding artificial signals to the data and testing our recovery of the signals with a variety of different approaches,” said Mikko Tuomi, who led the team from the University of Hertfordshire. “This significantly improved our noise modeling techniques and increased our sensitivity to find low mass planets.”

Tau Ceti was chosen, say the astronomers, because it was though Tau Ceti had no planets and would be a good benchmark for the new technique. The researchers suggest that due to Tau Ceti’s close proximity, the atmospheres of the newly discovered planets could be analyzed in the near future.

A CME is not a solar flare, and occurs when the solar atmosphere confined where magnetic fields are closed releases bubbles of gas and magnetic fields. The one spotted this week erupted from the sun as speeds of 450 miles per second, which NASA stated is slow to average for a CME. The eruption was seen by the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft.

CME’s can also create a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when a CME interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field in a certain way, causing solar wind particles to hit the atmosphere over the poles. This causes a rapid drop in the Earth’s magnetic field strength, which lasts for around six to twelve hours.

NASA stated that CMEs of the type seen this week “have not usually caused substantial geomagnetic storms.” They have, though, put on a light show with auroras near the Earth’s poles. NASA predicts that this week’s CME is “unlikely to cause disruptions to electrical systems on Earth or interfere with GPS or satellite-based communications systems.” The National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center currently predicts a relatively minor geomagnetic storm on Wednesday, with possible weak power grid fluctuations.

(Image courtesy NASA/STEREO)

This guys main contention is that when Nathan Rich, lead ground systems engineer in the NRL’s solar physics branch said that “The streaks in question are consistent with energetic particle (proton) impacts on the CCD, something which is apparent in just about every image.” It can’t be true due to the length of the sighting. The object which, if real, is approximately the size of planet Earth, seems to be in orbit around the sun.

Now this is where it gets interesting. After this video went semi-viral, SOHO went offline. NASA had this to say:

“SOHO went into ‘Emergency Sun Reacquisition’ mode on Friday May 4, 2012, caused by a false trigger of the Coarse Sun Pointing Attitude Anomaly Detector. We are working on the recovery of the spacecraft to normal mode.”

Did the satellite really go down? Or was it taken down until they can figure out what that massive thing is? Doesn’t NASA understand that when they do this kind of thing, it raises questions?

The object in question appears to be black in color and is perfectly round, with a long “twister tail” which connects it to the sun. According to TheWest.com, NASA claims that there is a very reasonable explanation for the anomaly: it appears to be a filiment, which is a “large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun’s surface. [Filaments] are anchored to the Sun’s surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun’s hot outer atmosphere, called the corona.”

One thing that remains a mystery even to NASA scientists, however, is why the sphere is cooler than the sun’s energy, which is why it appears so dark in relation to the sun. Also, it is strange for a filiment to retain such a distinct shape. Normally, they are formed by a violent burst of energy rather than a controlled form such as a sphere.

Occasionally word will spread of strange things found by NASA and speculation as to what they might be varies wildly, but there is always an explanation behind it. However, the fact that NASA is being vague about what this could be is more than enough to keep people guessing…and hoping.

NASA, who recently changed their successful Tweetup program to NASA Social, has almost 2 million followers on Twitter. That’s a lot of speculation.

The earth got lucky, absorbing the brunt of the solar winds along its northern axis. “If it had been southern,” reports the Associated Press, “that would have caused the most damaging technological disruption and biggest auroras.”

The lack of power outages may be subject to change, though. “We’re not out of the woods,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist Joe Kunches told the AP. “It was a good start. If I’m a power grid, I’m really happy so far.” The sun still has a bit left in it, and if the earth’s orientation to the winds shifts later, we could still encounter some disruption today.

Until then, though, we’ll keep writing. And if the storm does happen to disrupt your power, your communication, or your chi flow, let us know once the power’s back on.

After reaching out to the Sun, Lorraine Goode with Sun Online tells WebProNews, "Please note the page 3 women will be wearing a bikini. There isn’t any nudity."

As reports have shown, there has in fact been nudity, so I take this to mean that this will cease.

Apple has been heavily criticized for having a puritanical double standard. Reports indicated that Apple had eliminated apps containing women in bikinis and even workout clothes in the past. It had even axed an app for a beachwear retailer that sells bikinis, though it later reinstated it. Meanwhile, apps from publications like Playboy and FHM, as well as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue were allowed to remain. The Sun, apparently belongs alongside these publications.

Granted, there is much more content to The Sun, than this questionable section. People for the most part don’t appear to be upset that such an app is allowed in the App Store, but that Apple seems to have a double standard when it comes to this type of content.