Launched on Feb.
11, 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun.
During its five-year mission, it will examine the sun's atmosphere, magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth's atmospheric chemistry and climate.
SDO provides images with resolution 8 times better than high-definition television and returns more than a terabyte of data each day.
