Solar-B spacecraft Launch

Blob · #1 (**permalink**) 09-September-2006, 05:32 PM

Solar-B is a Japanese spacecraft which will have three telescopes to study solar flares, the huge bursts of energy which erupt from the Sun's surface.
The spacecraft is scheduled for a 22 September, 22:00 GMT launch from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) Uchinoura Space Centre at Uchinoura Kagoshima in southern Japan.

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Uchinoura
Latitude: 31.251000° Longitude: 131.082217°

Launch window · #2 (**permalink**) 09-September-2006, 06:54 PM

The previous mission Solar-A or Yohkoh was very good, you can find some pictures here

http://www.lmsal.com/SXT/Oimages.html

Blob · #3 (**permalink**) 21-September-2006, 10:50 PM

Solar B (12.31mb, wmv, broadband movie stream)

Blob · #4 (**permalink**) 22-September-2006, 11:06 PM

The M-V rocket No.7 carrying the SolarB satellite was successfully launched from the Uchinoura Space Centre at 6:36 am(JST), Sep. 23, 2006.

Blob · #5 (**permalink**) 23-September-2006, 12:09 AM

According to the JAXA launch blog, the Santiago tracking Station has confirmed that the satellite successfully separated from the M-V-7 launch vehicle, and was inserted into the correct orbit, and that the solar panels were deployed.

Blob · #6 (**permalink**) 23-September-2006, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Solar-B lifted off from Uchinoura, at the southern tip of Japan, at 0636 local time on Saturday (2136 GMT Friday).

"It will take two to three weeks to transfer the spacecraft into its so-called Sun-synchronous polar orbit. From this position, Solar-B will be able to observe the Sun without having any nights for eight months of the year" - Professor Tetsuya Watanabe, of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

As is customary on Japanese missions, the satellite will get a new name once it is ready to begin its work.

Forskern · #7 (**permalink**) 23-September-2006, 12:20 PM

It is now called Hinode, japanese for "sunrise".

Blob · #8 (**permalink**) 10-October-2006, 08:50 PM

Debris from the rocket that was launched on the 22nd September 2006, from the Uchinoura Space Centre for the SOLAR-B mission is predicted to re-enter the Earth atmosphere on 11 October 2006 @ 03:32 UTC ± 24 Hours

TLE Data

Code:

M-5 DEB
1 29481U 06041C   06283.48915800  .05686630  65192-1  14192-1 0   491
2 29481 098.3049 294.3555 0079240 077.9823 283.0340 15.95835259  2598
1 29481U 06041C   06283.42642803  .05727223  57263-1  14291-1 0   488
2 29481 098.3060 294.2800 0080427 078.1528 282.8871 15.94965142  2586
1 29481U 06041C   06283.23805623  .05020746  41762-1  14018-1 0   477
2 29481 098.3105 294.0527 0085630 077.7567 283.3075 15.92305217  2557
1 29481U 06041C   06283.23794268  .05725117  43824-1  14671-1 0   468
2 29481 098.3360 294.0459 0085830 071.5924 288.8150 15.92590367  2551
1 29481U 06041C   06282.98644444 +.05129067 +38420-1 +14378-1 0 00483
2 29481 098.3073 293.7425 0099754 077.7810 283.4489 15.89711452002511

Blob · #9 (**permalink**) 10-October-2006, 08:55 PM

TLE Data for the Solar-B satellite:

Code:

HINODE (SOLAR B)
1 29479U 06041A   06283.02970606 -.00001746  00000-0 -33346-3 0   444
2 29479 098.0871 291.8163 0014626 237.6808 122.9519 14.62695928  2541

Blob · #10 (**permalink**) 13-October-2006, 03:47 PM

A new satellite the size of a mini-van is orbiting the Earth and carrying three telescopes aimed at the sun. When the door to one of those telescopes opens Oct. 20, it will be a great day at Montana State University...

Source

Blob · #11 (**permalink**) 31-October-2006, 11:15 AM

JAXA has announced that the primary post-launch events of the satellite have been completed.

Quote:

Currently, Hinode's power systems and attitude pointing are stable. For approximately the next month, activities will progress from testing the basic operational aspects of the telescopes, to implementing the scientific operation mode. During this period, from time to time we plan to release images and telescope-performance information on the homepage for each instrument, or through other sources. We expect to complete adjustments of the instruments and enter the scientific observation phase of the mission early in December 2006.At that time we intend to release a summary of initial scientific findings obtained from the test images.

SOT opened its front door on October 25, and immediately began taking engineering test images and performing focus adjustments. This shows an image taken during this testing phase with SOT's broadband filter. From this and similar images they have confirmed that SOT is achieving very high spatial resolution of 0.2 arcseconds, a primary objective of the instrument.

mantiss · #12 (**permalink**) 29-November-2006, 04:26 PM

Some amazing new stuff released, including a few movies (2) (3)

But there is more here (english) and here (japanese)

Quote:

Hinode Shows Details of the Solar Atmosphere!
The National Astronomical Observtory of Japan (NAOJ), along with the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, and international partners held a press conference at 13:30 JST on 27 November, 2006 to announce these latest results.

ToSeek · #13 (**permalink**) 28-December-2006, 07:52 PM

First Images From Hinode Offer New Clues About Our Violent Sun

Quote:

Hinode's X-ray Telescope has captured unprecedented details in solar active region corona, the sun's outer atmosphere. The corona is the spawning ground for explosive solar activity, such as coronal mass ejections. Powered by the sun's magnetic field, these violent atmospheric disturbances of the sun can be of danger to space travelers, disruptive to orbiting satellites and can cause power grid problems on Earth.

Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope has delivered images that show greatly magnified views of the sun's surface. These images are revealing new details about solar convection. Solar convection is the process that drives the rising and falling of gases in the lowest atmospheric region, the photosphere. In addition, the Solar Optical Telescope is the first space-borne instrument to measure the strength and direction of the sun's magnetic field.

The Solar Optical Telescope images and magnetic maps uncover highly dynamic, intermittent nature of the sun's lower atmosphere - chromosphere. It is also providing revolutionary views on various solar phenomena from heating of solar atmosphere to generation of magnetic fields and magnetic reconnection.

Hinode's third primary instrument is the Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer. The instrument has provided measurements of the speed of solar material, along with information that will help scientists diagnose the temperature and density of solar outer atmosphere. The Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer provides a crucial link between the other two instruments aboard Hinode since it measures the layers that separate the photosphere from the corona: the chromosphere and the chromosphere-corona transition region.

"These first engineering images have given us a fascinating preview of what's on the horizon once the science phase of the mission begins, sometime in late December," Davis said. "Once we enter that phase, the focus will shift from calibration to using the instruments for making continuous, simultaneous observations of specific solar features."

Blob · #14 (**permalink**) 15-March-2007, 02:20 PM

A NASA Science Update at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, March 21 will be held to discuss never-before-seen observations from an international mission studying the sun. The briefing will take place in the NASA Headquarters auditorium, 300 E Street, S.W., Washington. It will air live on NASA Television.
The Hinode spacecraft, Japanese for "sunrise," launched in September 2006 to study the sun's magnetic field and how its explosive energy propagates through the different layers of the solar atmosphere. The spacecraft was known previously as Solar B.

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publiusr · #15 (**permalink**) 16-March-2007, 06:30 PM

I turned 40 the day that was launched.

Blob · #16 (**permalink**) 21-March-2007, 11:53 PM

Quote:

The restless bubbling and frothing of the Sun's chaotic surface is astonishing astronomers who have been treated to detailed new images from a Japanese space telescope called Hinode.
The observatory will have as dramatic an impact on our understanding of the Sun as the Hubble Space Telescope has had on our view of the universe beyond, scientists told a NASA press conference in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday.

Blob · #17 (**permalink**) 22-March-2007, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Hinode, the newest solar observatory on the space scene, has obtained never-before-seen images showing that the sun's magnetic field is much more turbulent and dynamic than previously known.

01101001 · #18 (**permalink**) 23-March-2007, 05:37 AM

Heard someone mispronounce hinode -- not surprising if normal English pronunciation is invoked.

Hinode is 3 syllables. That is not a silent e lurking on the end. It is, roughly, hee-no-deh.

Even with my limited survival-Japanese, it's pretty-easy-to-read kanji: 日の出 (if you've got the fonts).

That first character, 日, is just like the hi in hitachi or the hi in asahi. It's the sun. Astronomy time! It's probably not a surprise that it's important to the folks from the "land of the rising...". Picture a circular sun, with a dot in the middle to emphasize its roundness, and then square it off so it's... stylish, and you get a double-blank domino, or a two-story building, or a stack of two shoe boxes. Hi. Hee. Sun.

Then second character looks a little like an @ sign. It's pronounced no (yes! that one's easy), and indicates the possessive. So we're talking about the sun's something here.

The third character looks something like a stacked candelabra, or a wicked 3-prong fork. It grew from vegetation emerging: the first pair of leaves, the second pair of leaves, the bud on top that will become more. It means emerge, go out. If there's a fire in your crowded theater in Japan, looked for the door marked: 出. De. Deh.

Hi-no-de. Sun 's emerging. Sunrise.

Edit: And then I look at the JAXA site and they write the spacecraft's name: ひので. That is Hinode in phonetic, hiragana characters. It's another way. Kanji was prettier though.

ToSeek · #19 (**permalink**) 20-March-2008, 08:10 PM

Science with the solar space observatory Hinode

Quote:

The solar space observatory Hinode was launched in September 2006 [1], with the name "Hinode" meaning sunrise in Japanese. The Hinode satellite carries a solar optical telescope (SOT), an X-ray telescope (XRT), and an EUV imaging spectrometer (EIS). Hinode investigates both the interior and the atmospheric regions of the Sun. Its primary objectives are to address the origin of the Sun's magnetic field, the driving force behind solar eruptive events, and the nature of the hot corona.

As recognition of the impact of Hinode on various branches of solar physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a special feature this week consisting of 18 Letters that present the new results obtained with Hinode. These papers focus on the physics of sunspots, the emergence of magnetic flux on the solar surface, and the dynamics in the solar corona. Figure 1 illustrates these topics.

A handful of these papers are about sunspots, which are still mysterious in several aspects. They highlight the fine structure of the penumbra, which is the ring of radial structures surrounding the dark core of the spots (see Fig. 2). They present new evidence that the penumbra consists of sea-serpent-like magnetic flux tubes, embedded in a background wrapped around these tubes and connected to magnetic features outside the spot.