Above and Beyond: The Sun

 

 

 

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach.

 

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA, ESA, and STScI except:

 

·       Amateur image of 2009 impact site on Jupiter courtesy of Anthony Wesley

·       Gemini North Telescope image of 2009 impact site on Jupiter courtesy of Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Heidi B. Hammel (Space Science Institute), Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Gemini Observatory/AURA

·       Taurus constellation drawing from Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius, courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory

·       1879 photo of Jupiter and Great Red Spot from A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century by Agnes M. Clerk (1885)

·       2014 image of Jupiter and Great Red Spot courtesy of Damian Peach

·       Infrared images of Uranus from Keck Observatory courtesy of Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley)/Keck Observatory

·       Animation showing axial tilts of solar system planets courtesy of Steven Sanders, Eastern University

·       Animation comparing axial tilts of Earth and Uranus courtesy of Steven Sanders, Eastern University

 

 

Written by Vanessa Thomas

Designed by Marc Lussier

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

 

 

(SPEECH) 

 [SLOW ELECTRONIC MUSIC] 

(DESCRIPTION) 
 The Sun rotates in space. 

Text, The Sun never sleeps. 

Gases burn in bursts and sparks of orange all over the Sun's surface. 

Text, Seething-hot gas bubbles and churns incessantly. 

Dark, gaseous filaments twist and turn. 

Towering magnetic loops, illuminated by charged particles flowing along them, rise and fall constantly. 

Bright flares pop and flash. 

Long strands of super-hot gas lift off the Sun and frequently escape into space.