TRACE and the Active Sun
This
dramatic high resolution picture
looking across the edge of the Sun
was taken April 24th by a telescope on board
the newly launched
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) satellite.
It shows graceful arcs of intensely hot gas
suspended in
powerful looping magnetic fields which
soar above a solar active region.
The colorized image was made in the extreme ultraviolet light
radiated by highly
ionized Iron atoms.
With a temperature of a mere 6,000
degrees Celsius,
the sun's surface is relatively cool and dark at these wavelengths,
but the million degree hot plasma loops glow strongly!
Such TRACE images follow the plasma and magnetic structures arising
from the surface of the sun as they merge with the tenuous, hot
solar Corona or outer atmosphere.
By operating the
TRACE instruments during the Sun's increasingly
active phase,
scientists hope to explore the connections between
complex
solar magnetic fields and
potentially hazardous solar eruptions.