sun Archives

February 20, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

New Video Shows Fire and ‘Rain’ on the Sun

Screenshot of a dazzling magnetic display on the Sun, a phenomenon known as coronal rain. Credit: NASA/SDO

This footage was obtained by the AIA instrument on the Solar Dynamics Observatory on July 19, 2012. It provides a stunning display of solar activity and shows how wildly different events on the Sun can be. Some come just with a solar flare, some with an additional ejection of solar material called a coronal mass ejection (CME), and some with complex moving structures in association with changes in magnetic field lines that loop up into the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona.

This eruption produced all three.

A moderately powerful solar flare exploded on the Sun’s lower right hand limb, sending out light and radiation. Next came a CME, which shot off to the right out into space. And then, the Sun treated viewers to one of its dazzling magnetic displays — a phenomenon known as coronal rain.

Over the course of the next day, hot plasma in the corona cooled and condensed along strong magnetic fields in the region. Magnetic fields, themselves, are invisible, but the charged plasma is forced to move along the lines, showing up brightly in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 304 Angstroms, which highlights material at a temperature of about 50,000 Kelvin. This plasma acts as a tracer, helping scientists watch the dance of magnetic fields on the Sun, outlining the fields as it slowly falls back to the solar surface.

SDO collected one frame every 12 seconds, and the movie plays at 30 frames per second, so each second in this video corresponds to 6 minutes of real time. The video covers 12:30 a.m. EDT to 10:00 p.m. EDT on July 19, 2012.

February 17, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

The Astronomy of Shakespeare

A portrait of William Shakespeare on the cover of the first Folio of his plays. Credit: Elizabethan Club of Yale University

With all this talk lately of rocks whizzing by Earth (or crashing through the atmosphere), it’s remarkable that we didn’t even know of space rocks a few centuries ago. The first asteroid, 1 Ceres, was discovered in 1801.

Dial back a few centuries, and we were still in the realm of a perfect universe with the Earth at the center. William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) plays are full of these references. Universe Today recently stumbled across a 1964 Irish Astronomical Journal paper replete with examples.

Shakespeare was born about 20 years after Nicolaus Copernicus, whose book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) laid out the case for the Sun-centered solar system. It took a while for Copernicus’ theories to take hold, however.

While bearing in mind that Shakespeare often wrote about historical personages, one passage from Troilus and Cressida demonstrates an example of the characters speaking of the Sun following the other planets in circles around the Earth.

The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
Observe degree, priority and place.
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order:
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other …

An Earth-centered solar system had its problems when predicting the paths of the planets. Astronomers couldn’t figure out why Mars reversed in its path in the sky, for example.

The real explanation is the Earth “catching up” and passing Mars in its orbit, but astronomers in Shakespeare’s time commonly used “epicycles” (small circles in a planet’s orbit) to explain what was going on. Shakespeare wrote about this problem in Henry VI:

Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens,
So in the earth, to this day is not known.

However, the Bard displayed a more modern understanding of the Moon’s movement around the Earth, the paper points out. The Moon’s distance varies in its orbit, a fact spoken about in Othello, although note that Shakespeare attributes madness to the moon’s movements:

It is the very error of the moon;
She comes more near the earth than she was wont
And makes men mad.

For more examples — including what Shakespeare thought about astrology — you can check out the paper here.

February 11, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Stunning Compilation of the Solar Dynamic Observatory’s Observations

Magnificent eruption from the Sun, shown in 304 and 171 Angstrom wavelength light, on August 31, 2012. Credit: NASA

Three years ago today, (February 11, 2010) I was standing at Kennedy Space Center watching the launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The launch was spectacular, and included a unique effect as the Atlas rocket flew close to a sundog just as the spacecraft reached Max-Q, creating a ripple effect around the spacecraft. And so, SDO started off with a bang and she’s been producing incredible data ever since. The folks at Goddard Spaceflight Center’s Scientific Visualiation Studio have put together a highlight reel for the third year of SDO operations. You’ll see morphing sunspots, fountains of solar plasma, sun-grazing comets and more. Throughout its mission, SDO has not only studied the Sun, but also opened up several new, unexpected doors to scientific inquiry. Enjoy this “greatest hits” video of SDO’s third year.

February 8, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Astrophotos: An Amazing Rush from the Sun

The Sun in H-Alpha with close-up on a rushing prominence on 02-07-2013. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.

“The Sun was amazing yesterday!” wrote John Chumack, one of our favorite astrophotographers, sending us these great shots of incredible prominences on the western limb, and one detached solar prominence, along with several filaments on the disk and 3 Sunspots!

You might get a “rush” from the close-ups of the large prominences blasting from the Sun. John shot these with a hydrogen alpha filter from his backyard in Dayton, Ohio. See more below:

Full disk of the Sun in Hydrogen Alpha Light on 02-07-2013. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.

John’s tools of the trade for these images were a Lunt 60mm/50F H-Alpha Solar telescope, DMK 21 AF04, 2x barlow, for close-up, 1/54 Sec exposure, 724 frames; a DMK 31 Camera for Full Disk, 1/387 second exposure, 561 Frames, Stacked in Registax 6.

Prominences from the Sun on 02-07-2013, with one detached prominence achieving liftoff! Credit and copyright: John Chumack. — Prominences from the Sun on 02-07-2013, with one detached prominence achieving liftoff!. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.

These Sun has been fairly active the past few days. Here’s a video from the Solar Dynamics Observatory of a C9-class solar flare. produced from Active Region AR1667 on February 6, 2013:

And John wasn’t the only one imaging the active Sun in the last few days. Here’s another photo of the Sun captured by Paul Stewart in New Zealand.

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.

January 11, 2013December 23, 2015 by Jason Major

AR1654 is a Monster Sunspot. (And It’s Aiming Our Way.)

Active Region 1654 on the Sun’s western limb, seen by SDO on Jan. 11 (NASA/SDO/HMI team. Diagram by J. Major.)

Like an enormous cannon that is slowly turning its barrel toward us, the latest giant sunspot region AR1654 is steadily moving into position to face Earth, loaded with plenty of magnetic energy to create M-class flares — moderate-sized outbursts of solar energy that have the potential to cause brief radio blackouts on Earth and, at the very least, spark bright aurorae around the upper latitudes.

According to SpaceWeather.com, AR1654 “could be the sunspot that breaks the recent lengthy spell of calm space weather around our planet.”

The image above, captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory earlier today, shows the structure of AR1654 upon the Sun’s photosphere — its light-emitting “surface” layer. Stretching many tens of thousands of miles, this magnetic solar blemish easily dwarfs our entire planet. And it’s not just a prediction that this sunspot will unleash a flare — it already has.

AR1654 came around the limb of the sun crackling with activity. Shortly after the probability of AR1654 releasing a flare was raised to 50% it did just that, letting loose with a burst of magnetic energy that was observed by SDO’s multi-channel cameras. Watch the video below:

Peaking at 9:11 UTC, this M1-class flare won’t have much more effect on Earth than perhaps some radio and GPS interference and maybe increased auroral activity. But AR1654 is still evolving and growing… and moving to face us.

In the meantime, solar astronomers and observatories like SDO are keeping an ever-watchful eye on this magnetic monster.

Keep up with the latest news here on Universe Today, on the SDO mission site and on spaceweather.com.

UPDATE 1/12: According to the NOAA, AR1654 has a 5% chance of producing an X-class flare, based on its current magnetic activity and alignment.

A sunspot is a magnetically active region on the sun that appears dark because it’s relatively cooler than the surrounding area—6,000ºF (3,300ºC) versus 10,000ºF (5,500º C). Sunspots are where solar flares are most likely to occur since the magnetic fields in these active regions can build up enough energy to break, releasing bursts of intense radiation into the solar system.

January 8, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

4 Cool Views of the Hot, Loopy, Spotty Sun

The Sun in H-Alpha on 01-07-2013, as seen with a Lunt Solar LS60Scope/LS50, and Hydrogen Alpha Solar filter. Credit: John Chumack

A few sunspots are now ‘peppering” the surface of our Sun — Spaceweather.com lists about 12 different sunspot groups today. Yesterday (January 7, 2013), astrophotographer John Chumack stepped outside over his lunch break and captured some cool-looking views of the Sun from his observatory in Ohio, using different filters.

See more below, plus the Solar Dynamics Observatory has a spectacular video of coronal loops on the Sun during January 5 through 7.

The video shows the 171 angstroms channel, which is especially good at showing coronal loops – the arcs extending off of the Sun where plasma moves along the magnetic field lines, said the SDO team. The brightest spots seen here are locations where the magnetic field near the surface is exceptionally strong. The characteristic temperature here is 1 million K (or 1.8 million F).

Many of these loops could fit several Earths inside of them.

Different views from different filters from John Chumack:

The Sun in H-Alpha, on 01-07-2013, using a Lunt Solar LS60Scope/LS50 Hydrogen Alpha Solar filter. Credit: John Chumack

The Sun on 1/07/13 as seen using a White Light Glass filter. Credit: John Chumack

See more of John’s work at his website, Galactic Images, or his Flickr page.

January 7, 2013December 23, 2015 by Jason Major

Catching Sunlight: A TEDx Talk by DIY Solar Photographer Alan Friedman

Video poster frame shows Alan Friedman’s 90mm hydrogen alpha telescope setup — nicknamed “Little Big Man” — on an Astro-Physics 900 equatorial mount.

We’ve featured several beautiful images of the Sun here on Universe Today, captured by the talented Alan Friedman from his backyard telescope in Buffalo, NY. While photos of the Sun in and of themselves are nothing new in astronomy, Alan’s images always seem to bring out the best in our home star. Maybe it’s the magical nature of hydrogen alpha photography, maybe it’s Alan’s fancy new Grasshopper CCD camera, maybe the Sun’s photosphere was looking particularly nice on those days… but most likely Alan just has an innate skill for solar photography (as well as one for picking out great hats!)

In the video above, Alan talks to an audience at a TEDx event in Buffalo on October 9, sharing some of his photos and explaining why he does what he does, and why he feels do-it-yourself astrophotography is such a valuable thing to share with others. It’s a great bit of insight from a talented artist (and you just might recognize the names he drops at 13:55!)

I was happy to share one of Alan’s images on my own website back in 2010, which Phil Plait (the “Bad Astronomer,” who was then with Discover Magazine) picked up on and soon enough the whole thing got Alan quite a bit of attention. Which, when you’re an astrophotographer and graphic artist (he also sells art prints of his work as well as runs a greeting card studio) is never a bad thing.

Image of the Sun in hydrogen alpha. ©2010 Alan Friedman. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

You can see more of Alan’s work on his Averted Imagination blog and website and, on occasion, here on Universe Today!

December 21, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Today’s Solstice Sun

This beautiful image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory provides a view of our Sun on the solstice (winter solstice for the northern hemisphere and summer solstice for the southern hemisphere,) at 11:12 UTC, December 21, 2012. No killer solar flares, no apocalypse, just pure beauty and the life-giving light and warmth from Old Sol.

Happy solstice to all!

Via @Camilla_SDO

December 13, 2012December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

The Truth About 2012: Killer Solar Flares Are a Physical Impossibility

NASA is trying to make sure that no one is taking the 2012 doomsday nonsense seriously, and just put out this video today detailing how a gigantic “killer solar flare” just ain’t gonna happen. Dr. Alex Young from the Goddard Space Flight Center explains how the Sun’s regular 11-year solar cycle is expected to peak in 2013 and 2014, not on December 21 of this year. Plus, this current solar cycle has been kind of a dud as far as wild activity goes, and scientists are not expecting the peak of this cycle to even be as strong as the previous one, which was rather mild.

Solar prominence in H alpha, with Earth scale model. Credit: John Brady.

Not to mention, Earth’s atmosphere keeps us well protected here on Earth. The only thing we do have to be concerned with is how solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can damage satellites and even impact the power grid on Earth; additionally astronauts in Space to have to be specially protected as they are outside of the protection of the atmosphere.

You can get more information in our detailed article “2012: No Killer Solar Flare.”

November 30, 2012December 23, 2015 by Jason Major

In the Shadow of the Moon: Experience a Solar Eclipse From 37 Kilometers Up

The Moon’s shadow stretches over the Earth in this balloon-mounted camera view of the November 14 solar eclipse (Catalin Beldea, Marc Ulieriu, Daniel Toma et. al/Stiinta&Tehnica)

On November 14, 2012, tens of thousands of viewers across northeastern Australia got a great view of one of the most awe-inspiring sights in astronomy — a total solar eclipse. Of course many fantastic photos and videos were taken of the event, but one team of high-tech eclipse hunters from Romania went a step further — or should I say higher — and captured the event from a video camera mounted on a weather balloon soaring over 36,800 meters (120,000 feet) up!

Their video can be seen below:

During a solar eclipse the Moon passes in front of the disk of the Sun, casting its shadow upon the Earth. Any viewers within the darkest part of the shadow — the umbra — will experience a total eclipse, while those within the wider, more diffuse shadow area along the perimeter — the penumbra — will see a partial eclipse.

By launching a weather balloon carrying a wide-angle camera into the stratosphere above Queensland, eclipse hunter and amateur astronomer Catalin Beldea, ROSA research scientist Florin Mingireanu and others on the team were able to obtain their incredible video of the November 14 total eclipse from high enough up that the shadow of the Moon was visible striking Earth’s atmosphere. Totality only lasted a couple of minutes so good timing was essential… but they got the shot. Very impressive!

The mission was organized by teams from the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) and Stiinta&Tehnica.com, with the video assembled by Daniel Toma and posted on YouTube by editor-in-chief Marc Ulieriu. Music by Shamil Elvenheim.