Saturday, February 11, 2012

Sun Dance

Hey Space Placers!

As we saw last month during the largest solar radiation storm since 2005 (see my blogs) we have incredibly capable spacecraft monitoring our star in real time. I check in on the Sun every day at various mission web sites and every once in awhile I see a video or photograph that I have to share with you.

I spotted this one which shows the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light and is a closeup of dark plasma filaments literally "dancing" above the Sun's surface. These filaments usually go off into space or loop back down into the Sun. But if you watch this sequence a few times you see the plasma filaments doing all sorts of wild and wonderful gyrations.

The sequence was made up from 30 hours of observations on February 7-8 by the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) spacecraft . Truly amazing to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YYK7puA9WZo.

Sky Guy in VA


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