PIA21569: Spotless Sun
 Mission:  SDO
 Instrument:  Atmosphere Imaging Assembly
 Product Size:  1500 x 1478 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  SDO
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA21569.tif (4.696 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA21569.jpg (122.5 kB)

Click on image above for all movie download options

Original Caption Released with Image:

The sun has been virtually spotless, as in no sunspots, over the past 11 days, a spotless stretch that we have not seen since the last solar minimum many years ago. The videos shows the past four days (Mar. 14-17, 2017) with a combination of an extreme ultraviolet image blended with just the filtered sun. If we just showed the filtered sun with no spots for reference points, any viewer would have a hard time telling that the sun was even rotating. The sun is trending again towards the solar minimum period of its 11 year cycle, which is predicted to be around 2020 (See monthly prediction chart at http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/images/ssn_pr.edict_l.gif).

Movies
PIA21569_Spotless_combo_big.mp4
PIA21569_Spotless_combo_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

Image Credit:
NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory

Image Addition Date:
2017-03-22