XRT Picture of the Week (XPOW)

2026 March 05



Click the image to watch the full mission timeline video on YouTube (~7 minutes): link.

The Living Sun in X-rays

For nearly two decades, the Hinode X-Ray Telescope (XRT) has been quietly watching the Sun. Orbiting Earth for over 7,000 days, the spacecraft has captured a continuous record of the solar corona —the million-degree atmosphere surrounding our star. The videos presented here show synoptic X-ray images collected by XRT from 2006 through early 2026, revealing the Sun as a constantly evolving, dynamic system. These observations capture the complex magnetic structures that shape the corona—bright active regions, twisting plasma loops, and large-scale structures that change day by day across the solar surface. Three visual journeys are shown: Mission Timeline (2006–2026) – a nearly twenty-year view of the Sun evolving across two solar cycles. (YouTube: link) Solar Cycle 24 Maximum (2013–2015) – a period of intense solar activity when the corona became crowded with energetic active regions. (Movie: Solar maximum cycle 24) Solar Cycle 25 Rising Maximum (2024–2025) – the Sun awakening again as a new cycle grows in strength. (Movie: Solar maximum cycle 25) These images are shown the natural structure and beauty of the solar corona as seen in X-rays. Behind every frame is a global team of scientists, engineers, and mission operators who have sustained this mission for almost twenty years. Keywords: Synoptic, Solar Cycle Filters: Synoptic

(Prepared by Joy Velasquez)

The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.

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