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Credit & Copyright: Rainee Colacurcio
Explanation:
What's happening to the Sun?
Clearly, the Sun's lower half is hidden behind a thick cloud.
Averaging over the entire
Earth, clouds block the Sun
about 2/3rds of the time, although much less over many land locations.
On the Sun's upper right is a
prominence of magnetically levitating hot gas.
The prominence might seem small but it could easily
envelop our
Earth
and persist for over a month.
The featured image is a combination of two exposures,
one optimizing the cloud and prominence, and the other optimizing
the Sun's texture.
Both were taken about an hour apart with the same camera and from the same location
in
Lynnwood,
Washington,
USA.
The shaggy texture derives from the Sun's
chromosphere,
an atmospheric layer that stands out in the specifically
exposed color.
The uniformity of the texture shows the surface to be
relatively calm, indicative of a Sun just past the solar
minimum in its
11-year cycle.
In the years
ahead, the Sun will progress toward a
more active epoch where
sunspots, prominences, and ultimately
auroras on Earth will be more common: solar maximum.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Sun - prominence
Publications with words: Sun - prominence
See also:
- APOD: 2024 May 28 Á Solar X Flare as Famous Active Region Returns
- APOD: 2024 May 26 Á A Solar Filament Erupts
- APOD: 2024 February 19 Á Looking Sideways from the Parker Solar Probe
- Circling the Sun
- APOD: 2023 December 11 Á Solar Minimum versus Solar Maximum
- APOD: 2023 November 19 Á Space Station, Solar Prominences, Sun
- APOD: 2023 October 25 Á Gone in 60 Seconds: A Green Flash Sunset