JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere is Sunday with the summer solstice. The U.S. Postal service is celebrating by highlighting stunning images of the Sun on a new set of Forever stamps.
The stamps were released Friday, June 18 ahead of the solstice on Sunday, June 20.
These stamps help showcase the Sun, but also bring awareness to the science behind the ongoing exploration of our nearest star. The images on the stamps come from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft launched in February of 2010. This helps to keep a constant watch on the Sun from geosynchronous orbit above Earth.
The colors are striking in the images! However, they do not represent the actual colors of the Sun as perceived by human eyesight. Instead, each image is colorized by NASA according to different wavelengths that reveal or highlight specific features of the Sun's activity.
Art director Antonio Alcala designed these unique stamps with images provided by NASA.
Heliophysics is the study of the Sun and its influence on the planets and space surrounding them. While most of us don't think of it on a day-to-day basis, heliophysics has important implications on our daily lives!
To the human eye, the space between the Sun and Earth seem empty but it's actually filled with particles and energy from the constant flow of solar wind emitted from the Sun. That space is affected by a complex, ever-changing magnetic field that influences our entire solar system.
An increased understanding of the Sun helps us better predict its impact on not only the planet we live on, but also on the environment surrounding it. It also impacts sensitive human technology, such as communications systems and satellite electronics.
As humans continue to explore space and gain a deeper knowledge of solar activity, it will help us identify and solve many problems with communications, data collection, spacecraft and the design of satellites, and even the effects of space radiation on the human body.