Ask NASA Climate | May 19, 2010, 17:00 PDT

Pick of the pics

Star of the show

SDO image

This image shows one of the first pictures from NASA's recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO. The spacecraft is revealing never-before-seen details of material streaming outward and away from sunspots. Other images offer extreme close-ups of activity on the sun’s surface, and the first high-resolution measurements of solar flares in a broad range of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths. The sun's activities affect everything on Earth, and SDO should offer unprecedented insights into our star's dynamic processes. For more information, take a look here.