Harnessing the Sun_ Part 5: Studying the Sun from Space

At the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the Skylab back-up flight vehicle showcases how we began to understand the sun from space. Launched in 1973, Skylab was the United States first space station. On-board was a solar observatory that included eight separate experiments to study the Sun. More than 27,000 exposures of the sun over the course of the Skylab mission influenced the course of scientific research and have led to the development of Heliophysics. NASA uses a fleet of satellites to get a better view of the sun to research its constant activity. The Solar Dynamics Observatory or SDO can download 1.5 terabytes of information a day. That’s equivalent to downloading over 1.3 million cellphone pictures.