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The U.S. Postal Service provided a set of stamps highlighting views of the Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 18, 2021. Credit: U.S. Postal Service
The U.S. Postal Service provided the Sun Science stamps last month. The Forever stamps were committed throughout an event at the Greenbelt Main Post Office and are now for sale at Post Offices across the country.
“We hope these amazing stamps will help generate the same sense of wonder and curiosity about our star that inspired our ancestors and the scientists at NASA to want to better understand the sun, space, and the myriad of possibilities that exist in our solar system, in our universe and beyond,” stated Thomas J. Marshall, the Postal Service’s basic counsel and executive vice president, and the stamp event’s devoting authorities.
Background
The Postal Service highlights sensational pictures of the sun that commemorate the science behind the continuous expedition of our nearby star.
Printed with a foil treatment that includes a twinkle to the stamps, the images on these stamps originate from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft released in February 2010 to keep a continuous watch on the sun from geosynchronous orbit above Earth. The striking colors in these images do not represent the real colors of the sun as viewed by human vision. Instead, each image is colorized by NASA according to various wavelengths that expose or highlight particular functions of the sun’s activity.
One of the stamps highlights sunspots, 2 function pictures of coronal holes, 2 program coronal loops, 2 illustrate plasma blasts, one is a view of an active sun that stresses its electromagnetic fields, and 2 reveal various views of a solar flare.
The U.S. Postal Service lights up the light and heat of our nearby star by highlighting these sensational pictures of the Sun on stamps. These images originate from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft released in February 2010 to keep a continuous watch on the Sun. The Sun is the only star that people have the ability to observe in fantastic information, making it an important source of info about deep space. The Solar Dynamics Observatory lets us see the Sun in wavelengths of ultraviolet light that would otherwise be undetectable to our eyes. Each black-and-white image is colorized to the brilliant colors seen here. The stamps highlight various functions on the Sun that assist researchers discover how our star works and how its continuously churning electromagnetic fields produce the solar activity we see. Sunspots, coronal holes and coronal loops, for instance, can expose how those electromagnetic fields dance through the Sun and its environment. Observing plasma blasts and solar flares can assist us much better comprehend and reduce the effect of such eruptions on innovation in area. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics, the research study of the sun and its impact in the worlds and area surrounding them, has crucial ramifications for our everyday lives. Although the area in between the sun and Earth appears empty to human eyes, it is in fact filled with particles and energy from the continuous circulation of solar wind given off by the sun. That area is impacted by a complex, ever-changing electromagnetic field that affects our whole planetary system. Increased understanding of the sun assists us much better discuss and anticipate its effect not just on Earth’s environment however likewise on the near-Earth area environment and how it impacts delicate human innovation, such as interactions systems and satellite electronic devices. As humankind continues to check out area, a much deeper understanding of solar activity will likewise make it possible to determine and fix issues associated with interactions, information collection, spacecraft and satellite style, and the results of area radiation on the body.
Art director Antonio Alcalá created the stamps from images that have actually been colorized by NASA to refer the wavelengths that expose particular functions of the sun’s activity.
The Sun Science stamps are being provided as a Forever stamp in panes of 20. These Forever stamps will constantly be equivalent in worth to the existing First-Class Mail 1‑ounce rate.
