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adelaideseanOn Tuesday, December 5, Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a movie taken by the most excellent Hinode solar satellite. (The original file is downloadable here, along with other movies of the sun's surface.)
I find this footage utterly astonishing. Not only can you see the roiling, seething mass of gas that is the sun's surface, but you can clearly follow jets trapped in magnetic field lines on the horizon, streaming in all sorts of directions. This, the most wonderful, alien, bizarre atmosphere in the solar system, in living, vital motion, makes Jupiter look kinda dull in comparison.
My first thought was: How cool would it be to surf there?
Then, on December 6, a prototype telescope in New Mexico recorded a massive "solar tsunami" caused by an erupting sunspot. The shockwave, also known as a Moreton wave, covered the face of the sun in a matter of minutes and affected other features visible at the time.
Again, there's a movie; two, in fact, short and long.
I advise staring goggle-eyed at both until your mind explodes.
I find this footage utterly astonishing. Not only can you see the roiling, seething mass of gas that is the sun's surface, but you can clearly follow jets trapped in magnetic field lines on the horizon, streaming in all sorts of directions. This, the most wonderful, alien, bizarre atmosphere in the solar system, in living, vital motion, makes Jupiter look kinda dull in comparison.
My first thought was: How cool would it be to surf there?
Then, on December 6, a prototype telescope in New Mexico recorded a massive "solar tsunami" caused by an erupting sunspot. The shockwave, also known as a Moreton wave, covered the face of the sun in a matter of minutes and affected other features visible at the time.
Again, there's a movie; two, in fact, short and long.
I advise staring goggle-eyed at both until your mind explodes.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-09 01:15 am (UTC)Whoa.........!
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Date: 2006-12-09 09:45 pm (UTC)more solar movies
Date: 2006-12-09 10:40 pm (UTC)http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/movies/SVST_granulation.mpg
Each of those 'bubbles' is about 1000km across, and is a big blob of hot plasma rising to the surface, brighter in the center becuase it's hotter, darker at the edges because it's the cool gas rolling over to the edges and sinking again. The outer 1/3rd or so of the Sun's diameter has almost all of the heat flow by convection, like water on a stove (before it boils). Each cell lasts about 15 minutes, so the whole movie is about an hour of real time.
There's lots more movies on this page:
http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/presentations.shtml
It's got a bunch of powerpoint presentations on solar weather, etc, and links to every movie in every presentation.
Andrew Williams (from Perth)
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Date: 2006-12-09 11:36 pm (UTC)Re: more solar movies
Date: 2006-12-10 12:22 am (UTC)One, because the scale is so impressive: a bubble of plasma 1000km across bubbling up and collapsing is, well, it's like nothing on Earth, that's for sure. That's a structure wider than the distance between Melbourne and Adelaide appearing and disappearing in the time it takes me walk to the shops. "Cool" doesn't really do it justice.
And two, because it is indeed like water on a stove. The scales could hardly be more disparate but the dynamics underlying them are the same.
Discovering nature is like reading a wonderfully rich novel, one full of astonishingly diverse details but rich at the same time with recurring themes. It's a text we should never get tired of reading.
Footage like this should be required viewing for people of all ages, everywhere. :-)
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Date: 2006-12-10 12:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-10 03:22 am (UTC)^_^
On an unrelated matter, a friend of mine was reading your fourth book of the cataclysm as she's some judge for a fantasy award I think, and she passed it onto me knowing that I'm a fan of your work. I must admit I haven't read the first three books in that series, but have read the first two books in "The Change" series.
I'm thoroughly enjoying the change in style of the books and can't wait to read the first three in the series.
I still don't think they top my favourite of your novels (Metal Fatigue) but I do hope one day you might do something along it's lines in the same (or similar) universe!
It's so good to see more of your work coming out. I just wish I had more time to read!
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Date: 2006-12-10 10:24 am (UTC)I've had an idea for a sequel kicking around for over a decade (and a title: Motor Reflex) so maybe one day soon I'll be able to grant you that wish. :-)
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Date: 2006-12-10 09:53 pm (UTC)More from Nasa
Date: 2007-03-12 11:25 pm (UTC)Now this looks like fun. By the blurb they were 'calibrating' a telescope by pointing it at the sun, and catching a transition by the moon in the process. Check the movies.
Re: More from Nasa
Date: 2007-03-12 11:37 pm (UTC):-)