Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have released this stunning image, a high-resolution computer model of a sunspot, created over a period of several weeks by a supercomputer performing at a rate of 76 trillion calculations per second. This is, to date, the most…
Category: sun
Blue Light Special
The European Space Agency’s SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) satellite returned this image today of the sun, taken in ultraviolet light at one-million-degree temperature wavelengths. Bright, twisted areas are regions of hotter storminess while darker spots are cooler zones called coronal holes. The SOHO satellite is positioned in orbit around the sun just inside…
Sun Crossing
This amazing image was taken by NASA photographer Thierry Legault at 12:17 EST on May 13 as the shuttle Atlantis and Hubble Space Telescope passed in front of the sun, a fleeting transit lasting only .8 seconds. More images of this and the previous day’s transit can be found on Legault’s website. Mission astronauts…
Spotlight on the Sun
This month, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory focuses on our solar system’s real superstar: the sun! The video below highlights historical observations of the sun and shows some recent robotic missions that have brought back groundbreaking data about our celestial sovereign. The photo illustration above approximates the comparative size of the sun to our planet Earth….
Lights in the Dark 