Incandescent Sun

  • Released Wednesday, May 23, 2012
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This video 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.

Video.

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Still of east limb active region.

Still of east limb active region.

Still of central "peacock" active region.

Still of central "peacock" active region.

Still of west side CME in progress.

Still of west side CME in progress.

Still of west limb active region.

Still of west limb active region.

Still of lower east limb CME in progress.

Still of lower east limb CME in progress.

Most of the disk of the sun.

Most of the disk of the sun.

WallpapersA selection of stills sized for desktop backgrounds. Each one is available as a TIFF or JPEG.

Wallpapers

A selection of stills sized for desktop backgrounds. Each one is available as a TIFF or JPEG.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Wednesday, May 23, 2012.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:53 PM EDT.

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