The Secret Life of the Sun
- Year:
- 2013
- 33 Views
is the power that shapes our world.
Our very own star.
The sun.
We see it shine in the sky above us.
But beyond our sight,
something dramatic is happening.
The sun is going into overdrive.
Our star is more active now
than it's been for a decade.
It's sending
eruptions of superheated plasma
and vast waves of radiation
towards our planet,
with the potential
to disrupt our lives
in completely unexpected ways.
At the same time,
a new generation of satellites
is showing us the sun
in more detail than ever before.
It's almost pulsating.
I'm Kate Humble.
And I'm Helen Czerski.
Together, we're going to unravel
what's happening to our sun.
From Britain's leading centre
for solar research,
we'll use the latest satellite images
and a team of world-class experts
to decode the sun's inner workings.
Something in the sun's atmosphere
snapped.
We'll explore the sun's
most spectacular displays.
I love your laboratory,
it's brilliant!
Investigate its mysterious
cycles of activity.
So it took seconds to get from the
sun to the satellite. That's right.
And discover how our sun
70 miles west of London
lies Britain's answer to NASA.
This is the Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory in Oxfordshire.
At RAL, satellite instruments
are designed and tested
before they're launched into space.
And scientists are analysing
the latest information
these satellites beam down
around the clock.
It's one of the most important
centres of solar research
in the world.
We've set up inside one
of RAL's giant research facilities
so that we can talk to some
of Britain's leading solar scientists
and see for ourselves
the extraordinary images
they're using to study our star.
We can't look directly at the sun
without damaging our eyesight,
but a new fleet of satellites
are allowing scientists here at RAL
for the first time
to get a unique picture of the sun.
In 2006, NASA launched
the twin STEREO spacecraft
to observe the sun
from two sides simultaneously.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory
followed four years later.
It's able to visualise the sun in
high resolution for the first time.
These satellites show the sun
as far more than simply the burning
disc in the sky that we see.
Here at RAL, head of space science
Richard Harrison
is responsible
So, Richard,
how are these new satellites
advancing our knowledge of the sun?
Well, the whole point
is that we have now built up
a fleet of spacecraft, an
international fleet of spacecraft,
that are really studying the sun
in phenomenal detail.
We can see the sun from both sides.
We can see a complete star,
and we'd never done that before.
And these satellites can detect
types of light from the sun
that are invisible to the naked eye.
are what we call active regions,
and they're regions
a bit like volcanoes and earthquakes
on the Earth, if you like,
regions where the sun is active,
and there's a lot of interesting
stuff happening in here.
You can see it with your own eyes,
it's so complex,
it's moving all the time,
like a plate of writhing spaghetti.
And I mean,
this is an extraordinary image.
We can see several colours
put together,
showing you the full complexity
in all of its glory, if you like,
writhing in front of your eyes.
And this sort of illustrates it,
puts it in a nutshell,
how fantastic it is
to be studying the sun
as it approaches a peak in activity
with this wonderful fleet
of spacecraft.
This peak in activity
It's the high point in a cycle
the sun goes through
From relative calm...
..to intense activity...
..and back again.
A cycle that's fundamental
to how the sun works.
Understanding this solar cycle
will help us discover
the secret life of the sun.
But for most of us on Earth,
the sun is something we rarely
examine in any sort of detail.
To begin to understand
its extraordinary power
and its changing cycles of activity,
we need the help
of one of the most dramatic events
in the astronomical calendar,
And to see that, I had to travel
to the other side of the world.
November 2012.
I've come to Cairns, Australia.
I'm joining people
from across the globe
because in 48 hours,
there's going to be a total eclipse.
But this one is special
because it promises to reveal
something crucial about our sun.
Cairns is a relatively small town
in Australian terms.
It's home to about 130,000 people.
by as much as 50,000
in the next couple of days,
and all for an event
that's going to last
just two minutes and two seconds.
It's an emotional experience, it's a
lovely way to sort of see the world.
Everyone is happy. It's fanta...
It's a natural spectacle of science.
I'm getting excited, yeah!
I've never seen
and we've got our glasses,
and we're all set to go.
We've got our fingers crossed
for clear skies.
You can't safely view an eclipse
unless you have glasses
with powerful filters.
Hi. Hello.
That's what I'm after.
The very last pair.
No way! Three dollars.
Did you want some as well? Oh, yeah,
we've been searching everywhere!
This is the very last pair in Cairns.
I'm really sorry.
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"The Secret Life of the Sun" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_secret_life_of_the_sun_17703>.
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