Awesome close-up shot of the Sun shows an explosion that you expect to see only in the movies [Amazing Photo of the Day]

Ashraf September 19, 2012 8

Ever see a space movie or TV show? You probably have. (My personal favorite is Battlestar Galactica, the remake.) In these movies or shows, I’m pretty sure at one time or another you viewed a magnificent, fiery explosion or reaction on a star. Guess what? Those things aren’t just for the movies — they actually happen in real-life. One such example is what is happens on our very own Sun.

The following is a photograph of an eruption of a “solar filament” on our Sun. According to NASA:

At the end of last month, a long standing solar filament suddenly erupted into space producing an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The filament had been held up for days by the Sun’s ever changing magnetic field and the timing of the eruption was unexpected. Watched closely by the Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, the resulting explosion shot electrons and ions into the Solar System, some of which arrived at Earth three days later and impacted Earth’s magnetosphere, causing visible aurorae. Loops of plasma surrounding an active region can be seen above the erupting filament in the ultraviolet image.

I’m fairly certain I did not understand a word of NASA’s explanation — but the resulting picture is so damn cool. Check it out, and be sure to view the bonus video after it:

[via NASA]

TAGS » Amazing Photo of the Day

POSTED IN » Miscellaneous

Subscribe to dotTech -- never miss an article again!

About the author: Ashraf View all posts by Ashraf

Happily married to the most beautiful woman ever, Ashraf is the founder of dotTech. Ashraf spends insane hours on dotTech (usually writing articles but sometimes doing absolutely nothing except staring). Yes he is weird, but he is also very friendly.

8 Comments »

Mayank September 19, 2012 at 8:22 AM (comment permalink) -

God dammit, is this our real Sun… :O

If it is, Am really amazed to see it with my own eyes…
SO beautiful still so so so so and a million times so Hot… :D

1

Click here to reply to this comment
Zapped Sparky September 19, 2012 at 8:31 AM (comment permalink) -

Oh wow, on to my desktop it goes :)

2

Click here to reply to this comment
jayesstee September 19, 2012 at 12:26 PM (comment permalink) -

Wow!

3

Click here to reply to this comment
Peter September 19, 2012 at 3:18 PM (comment permalink) -

@Mayank: The amazing fact is that the temperature on the surface of the sun is ~5-6*10^3 Kelvin, but the Corona is about 10^6 K hot.
Here is another interesting article about Mars Express, Venus Expres, Rosetta and the Corona.

4

Click here to reply to this comment
Peter September 19, 2012 at 3:23 PM (comment permalink) -

sorry for posting twice again. But you really should not miss this amusing interview

5

Click here to reply to this comment
BarrysCool September 19, 2012 at 9:33 PM (comment permalink) -

@Zapped Sparky:
For your desktop…remember dottech posted (Sept. 18th) Google’s reverse Image search, use it to get the size image of your choice.

6

Click here to reply to this comment
Zapped Sparky September 20, 2012 at 2:03 PM (comment permalink) -

@BarrysCool: No need, I went to the NASA site and got the big one: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1209/filament_sdo_1920.jpg :)

7

Click here to reply to this comment
Ashraf September 22, 2012 at 3:02 PM (comment permalink) -
Mr. Boss

@Mayank: Yes, it is our real sun :-)
@Zapped Sparky: Glad you like it!
@jayesstee: Ditto.
@Peter: Thanks for the articles!
@BarrysCool: @Zapped Sparky: I was originally going to upload the largest version but it is so damn big.

8

Click here to reply to this comment