Here comes the Sun

The University of Central Lancashire has helped to reveal spectacular images of the Sun with a picture quality 10 times that of high-definition television. Images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) were unveiled at a Nasa press conference last week. Uclan is collaborating with the American space agency and its international partners to investigate, store, manage and share the images. The SDO's orbit allows rapid high-resolution images to be recorded, helping to find out what is behind changes in the Sun's activity and how it affects the Earth. Robert Walsh, Uclan project leader and the university's director of research, said: "I have been astounded by the clarity of these first images. They show us the awe-inspiring magnitude of the Sun's power through violent eruptions and solar storms at a quality we never thought possible."