gallery - solar spacecraft

Movie of astronauts working in space

The launch of SOHO on 2 nd December 1995 from Kennedy Space Centre , Florida , USA . (no sound)

The launch of SOHO on 2nd December 1995 from the Kennedy Space Centre , Florida , USA . (with sound) .

Animation of SOHO 's journey from Earth to the L1 point where it orbits between the Sun and the Earth.

Animation of SOHO 's orbit between the Sun and the Earth.

Animation of SOHO’s solar panels unfolding. The solar panels collect energy from the Sun to power the spacecraft.

Animation of the SOHO spacecraft. Can you locate all of the 12 instruments?

Movie showing images of the Sun changing from the visible light up to X-rays (as seen by YOHKOH). The bright regions in the X-ray image correspond to where sunspots are located in the visible image.

Movie showing the X-ray Sun as seen by the SXT instrument on YOHKOH. Notice how the number of active regions present changes over time, and how some active regions remain over several rotations of the Sun.

Movie of an active region as seen in the ultraviolet with TRACE. The movie follows one active region over 8 days as the Sun rotates. The active region is very dynamic and constantly changing its shape and structure.

A flare as seen in the ultraviolet with TRACE. This movie covers a 6-hour time period. The flare can be seen as the large increase in brightness in the centre of the frame at approximately 13:00. An arcade of loops is seen after the flare.

Animation of the Ulysses spacecraft as it orbits the Sun.

Explosion of the Ariane 5 rocket on 4 th June 1996. It was carrying the first Cluster satellites.

Launch of a pair of the Cluster II satellites on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur , Kazakhstan in July 2000.

Animation of the deployment of two of the Cluster II satellites after launch.

The aurora as seen from Earth. The different colours are produced by different elements in the Earth's atmosphere. The aurora are often said to look like curtains of colour, which dance silently across the sky.

Still Images