A Year on the Sun
Image Credit:
NASA,
Solar Dynamics Observatory
Our solar system's
miasma of
incandescent plasma,
the Sun may look a little scary here.
The picture is a composite of 25 images
recorded in extreme
ultraviolet light by the orbiting
Solar Dynamics Observatory between April 16, 2012 and
April 15, 2013.
The particular wavelength of light, 171 angstroms, shows
emission from highly ionized iron atoms in the
solar corona at a characteristic temperatures of about
600,000 kelvins
(about 1 million degrees F).
Girdling both sides
of the equator during approach to maximum in the
11-year solar cycle,
the solar active regions are laced
with bright loops and arcs along
magnetic field lines.
Of course, a more familiar
visible light view would show
the bright active regions as groups of
dark sunspots.
Three years of Solar Dynamics Observatory images are compressed into
this short video.