Happy Birthday "Hinode"!

The solar observing satellite "Hinode" will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its launch on 23 September (Japan standard time). This 3-minutes movie presents the solar atmosphere fulfilled with active phenomena much more than ever imagined, captured with the Hinode telescopes.

On 23 September 2006 (Japan standard time), the last vehicle in the series of M-V rocket carried Hinode into its orbit around the Earth.

In a couple of years after Hinode started its observations, the Sun became its solar minimum phase, which continued for an extremely long period. Even in the minimum phase, the solar atmosphere captured by Hinode was fulfilled with dynamic phenomena, such as spicules, granulation, and prominences, and their behaviors were more than you could imagine.

Hinode also recorded rare astronomical events, such as the transit of Venus and solar eclipses, and delivered spectacular images and movies, which could not been acquired from the ground.

Owing to its highest spatial resolution, Hinode has monitored the monthly evolution of the solar polar regions, which are difficult to view from the Earth, and successfully captured the reversal of the magnetic polarity at the solar poles.

When the solar activity reached the maximum around 2014, the Sun has shown active corona, large sunspots, active chromosphere around sunspots, solar flares, plasma ejections. They were well observed with Hinode.

The movies and pictures included in this short movie are just a limited portion of the data captured by Hinode in the past 10 years. Using the data from Hinode, scientists over the world have been investigating the Sun to understand various mysteries in the Sun. By continuing its observations, Hinode will lead solar researches in the world.

Hinode (SOLAR-B) Project