Ask NASA Climate | May 19, 2010, 17:00 PDT
Pick of the pics
Star of the show
![SDO image](/images/sun_crop_515.jpg)
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.