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On 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.
