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Astronomy: SOHO
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The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is one of the latest and most sophisticated satellites to be involved in Sun watching. It was launched in 1995 by an Atlas Centaur rocket as a joint ESA and NASA project. SOHO weighs about 2 tons and with its solar panels extended, stands about 25 feet across. The satellite became operational in March 1996; it has a position between the Earth and the Sun after a planned spin around Jupiter to be catapulled by it's gravity. Now it is carefully balanced between the gravital fields of the Sun and Earth (a so-called Lagrangian point at 1.5 million km from Earth). SOHO observes coronal holes, bright spots, the motion of the solar surface, the Sun's interior structure, the flow of the solar wind and coronal mass ejections. Live Sun images from SOHOWatch this live green filtered image from SOHO from the solar activity in a popup window. Or watch sunspots in this orange SOHO image in a popup window.Related subjects>> The Sun>> Solar observatory Skylab >> Genesis >> Official SOHO Nasa internetsite |
 A sketch of SOHO. |
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