Sun Shines in High-Energy X-rays (full view)

Nustar_nustar141222b_1024

nustar_nustar141222b December 22nd, 2014

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). This is the first picture of the sun taken by NuSTAR. The field of view covers the west limb of the sun.

The NuSTAR data, seen in green and blue, reveal solar high-energy emission (green shows energies between 2 and 3 kiloelectron volts, and blue shows energies between 3 and 5 kiloelectron volts). The high-energy X-rays come from gas heated to above 3 million degrees.

The red channel represents ultraviolet light captured by SDO at wavelengths of 171 angstroms, and shows the presence of lower-temperature material in the solar atmosphere at 1 million degrees.

This image shows that some of the hotter emission tracked by NuSTAR is coming from different locations in the active regions and the coronal loops than the cooler emission shown in the SDO image. Note that NuSTAR's field of view for these observations covered only the upper portions of the SDO image.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Virginia. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University, New York; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California; ATK Aerospace Systems, Goleta, California, and with support from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) Science Data Center.

NuSTAR's mission operations center is at UC Berkeley, with the ASI providing its equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

Provider: Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array

Image Source: https://nustar.caltech.edu/image/nustar141222b

Curator: NuSTAR: Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, Pasadena, CA

Image Use Policy: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/imagepolicy/

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Sol Sun
Subject - Solar System
Star > Feature > Corona > Prominence

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue NuSTAR X-ray (3-10 keV) 248.0 pm
Green NuSTAR X-ray (2-3 keV) 62.0 pm
Red SDO Ultraviolet (EUV) 17.1 nm
Spectrum_xray1w
Blue
Green
Red
Nustar_nustar141222b_1280
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ID
nustar141222b
Subject Category
A.3.5.3.1  
Subject Name
Sol, Sun
Credits
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date
2014-12-22
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://nustar.caltech.edu/image/nustar141222b
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
NuSTAR, NuSTAR, SDO
Instrument
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
X-ray, X-ray, Ultraviolet
Bandpass
3-10 keV, 2-3 keV, EUV
Central Wavelength
0.24797, 0.061992, 17.1
Start Time
2014-11-01T20:09
Integration Time
2.00016500000
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
NuSTAR: Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
URL
http://www.nustar.caltech.edu
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
City
Pasadena
State/Province
CA
Postal Code
Country
Rights
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/imagepolicy/
Publisher
Publisher ID
nustar
Resource ID
Metadata Date
2018-06-21T00:31:21Z
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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