This video [below] takes SDO images and applies additional processing to enhance the structures visible. While there is no scientific value to this processing, it does result in a beautiful, new way of looking at the sun.
The original frames are in the 171 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet. This wavelength shows plasma in the solar atmosphere, called the corona, that is around 600,000 Kelvin.
The loops represent plasma held in place by magnetic fields. They are concentrated in "active regions" where the magnetic fields are the strongest. These active regions usually appear in visible light as sunspots. The events in this video represent 24 hours of activity on September 25, 2011.
Via Dangerous Minds and The Dish.
Boggles the mind. It's difficult to comprehend what I'm seeing. Our atoms supposedly spent billions of years in such an environment, sometimes matter, sometimes energy, whatever that is.
ReplyDeleteVenus transit of the sun tomorrow, Tuesday the 5th, as the sun sets. Looks like stormy weather here in NY. One needs a set of welding glasses rated #14, which perhaps refers to UV radiation protection. Supposedly the last Venus transit for more than 100 years! NASA will measure the light reflecting off the moon for changes, which will aid in detecting exoplanets around other stars.
These closeup observations of the sun are amazing. It is so easy to think of the sun as simply an inert, static, yellow disc in the sky.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with their summary, in part:
ReplyDeleteWhile there is no scientific value to this processing
Au contraire - from their own preceding sentence:
This video [below] takes SDO images and applies additional processing to enhance the structures visible.
That is of immense scientific value - and quite beautiful.