NASA probably has one really dizzy spacecraft on its hands.
The space agency’s Solar Dynamic’s Observatory (SDO) performed a planned roll maneuver on July 6 that turned it 360 degrees and produced a disorienting GIF of the sun flipping around in the process.
While the GIF shows the roll happening in just one second, the SDO’s maneuver that produced the images occurred over the course of 7 hours.
The observatory took a photo of the sun once every 12 seconds during the movement, according to NASA.
This kind of roll happens two times per year in order to help calibrate the SDO’s Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), designed to look at the outer edge of the sun from the spacecraft’s perspective. Read more…
