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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

DISCOVER

Seriously jaw-dropping picture of the Sun

Need your slice of awesome today? Then check out this truly astonishing picture of a detached prominence off the limb of the Sun:

Holy wow! Click to ensolarnate. And I mean it: you want to see the bigger version of this.

This picture was taken by Alan Friedman, who is no stranger to this blog: his picture of the boiling Sun last year was hugely popular, and so amazing I featured it as one of my top pictures of 2010.

And with this he’s done it again… and maybe even topped it.

Alan used a filter that lets through only a very narrow wavelength of light emitted by hydrogen (called Hα for those of you keeping track at home), so this tracks the activity of gas on the solar surface. He also inverts the image of the solar disk (makes it a negative) to increase contrast. Somehow this adds a three-dimensional quality to the picture, and reveals an amazing amount of texture. I swear I had a rug in my bedroom growing up that was this texture (though somewhat cooler and less burny).

The scene-stealer is that detached prominence off to the left. That’s the leftover material ejected from the Sun by an erupting sunspot (you can see other sunspots in the picture as well). The gas is ionized — a plasma — and so it’s affected by magnetic fields. The material follows the magnetic field of the Sun in the explosion, lifting it off the surface and into space. Sometimes it falls back, and sometimes it leaves the Sun entirely. In this case, Alan caught some of the material at what looks like the top of its trajectory.

The beauty of this picture belies its violence and sheer magnitude: the mass of material in a prominence can easily top 10 billion tons! As for size, see that dark elongated sunspot near the base of the prominence, just to the right of the bigger, speckly one? That spot is roughly twice the size of the Earth.

Yegads.

Making this even more amazing, these images are taken with a 90mm telescope — that’s a lens not even 4 inches across! Superior optics, a good mount, and a steady hand can do wonders.

You really need to go and see the rest of Alan’s photography at his site, Averted Imagination. His photos of the skies are surpassingly beautiful.

Related posts:
- The boiling, erupting Sun
- The Top 14 Astronomy Pictures of 2010
- Incredible solar flare video
- Arc of dissent

March 8th, 2011 7:52 AM Tags: Alan Friedman, prominence, Sun
by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Cool stuff, Pretty pictures | 52 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

52 Responses to “Seriously jaw-dropping picture of the Sun”

1. Sam H Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 8:15 am
That prominence looks exactly like cirrus clouds hanging over the sun to me (and they are clouds, in a way). Sweet that it’s made of superhot plasma and twice the size of Earth!!!
“Not only is the universe stranger than we can imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.”
2. Tavi Greiner Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 8:23 am
I have a question. Trying to wrap my mind around the immense size of the Sun and the fact that it’s all gas, yet appears as a solid sphere. Is the gas so dense that we could actually walk (or almost walk) on its “surface” – maybe something like ooey gooey molten rock? (Pretend we have super suits to protect us from the heat.)
3. Craig Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 8:38 am
Ooh! Look. A contrail on the sun!
4. Ken B Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 8:43 am
Given our evolution on a planet where the light source is above, the sunspot below the prominence makes me think of a shadow.
Besides, it’s obviously a fake. There are no stars in the image.
5. El esponjoso sol de Alan Friedman — Amazings.es Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 8:47 am
[...] hoy, como dice Phil Plait, lo ha vuelto a conseguir y nos vuelve a dejar boquiabiertos con otra de sus alucinantes [...]
6. TechyDad Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 8:48 am
@Tavi Greiner,
The Sun is plasma, not gas. That said, I think the Sun’s intense magnetic fields and gravity are what give it the illusion of being solid. In reality, if you stepped onto the surface (assuming you didn’t melt or burst into flames), you’d probably sink down into the plasma. It wouldn’t be a very fun… or long lasting trip, that’s for sure!
7. TechyDad Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 8:52 am
That’s certainly a much nicer photo of the Sun than the one in today’s Brewster Rockit comic:http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/2011/03/08/
Maybe it’s the pareidolia talking, but I have a bad feeling about this.
8. kevbo Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:04 am
@kenb
No stars? I see a big one filling up the botton right part of the picture…
(heh heh heh…”massive floater”)
9. Brett Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:15 am
That is without a doubt the most awe-inspiring picture of the sun that I have ever seen. It really causes the mind to stagger and then soar. Thank you for posting that. And thanks for the link….I’m gonna head there now! Keep up the great work!
10. J. Major Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Alan’s work is always super-solarific.
He got a lot of publicity with his image from last October…hopefully this one will generate the same!
11. CB Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:32 am
I think what makes the sun look “solid” is that it’s emitting crazy amounts of light, so we can’t see through it as we would expect with a gas or cool plasma. But this plasma is very, very hot.
I agree that in pictures like this, where there’s enough of a filter put on the sun’s light that it doesn’t look as ridiculously luminous as it really is, that it kinda looks more like how a solid orange ball lit by some other light source would look. But keep in mind that even those “dark” sun spots are also glowing brightly, and only appear dark compared to the rest of the sun!
12. Rosie M. Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:36 am
In reply to Ken B; there is at least one star in the image.
13. The Outstanding Beauty & Majesty of the Cosmos | 4mula design Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:48 am
[...] discovermagazine.comAuthor: Alan [...]
14. Digital Atheist Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:49 am
@1 Sam H
I was about to make the very same comment about cirrus clouds… it was the first thing I noticed.
On a more personal note, any image of Sol is a great one to me, whether it is something like this, or playing around with my telescope and looking at sun spots projected on a sheet of paper (note to all amateur astronomers.. do NOT accidently forget and leave a color filter in… the heat WILL pop it.. very very quickly.)
Keep these pictures coming Phil… The sheer magnitued of the infitesimally small speck of space our system occupies in the universe is still soooooooo magnificently large I know i’ll never be able to comprehend it all.
15. Ken B Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:50 am
kevbo:
@kenb
No stars? I see a big one filling up the botton right part of the picture…
And since when would the facts get in the way of a serious “moon hoaxer”?
(And, given the audience here, I knew someone would pick up on that.)
16. The mind-blowing image of the sun blowing its top « STARS MAGAZINESays:
March 8th, 2011 at 10:13 am
[...] Full story: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/03/08/seriously-jaw-dropping-picture-of-the-sun/ [...]
17. cory Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 10:15 am
truely inspiring image .
18. Neeneko Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 10:38 am
I think I just discovered what I want to do with my soon to be re-purposed camera….
Too much light pollution for astrophotgraphy where I am… but the sun…. hard to have too much light for that.
19. Evan Harper Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 10:45 am
I didn’t know what “10 billion tons” meant, really, so here’s an analogy: 10 Gt is pretty close to the weight of a lead cube with 1 km sides.
Given the size of the cloud, that’s actually an incredibly small mass, ain’t it? Making a calculation for the cloud’s volume that would be overdignified by calling it “back-of-the-envelope,” that’s about 1 gram for every cube of plasma 400 m on a side.
Space is weird.
20. Joseph G Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 11:05 am
Totally off-topic, but I’m FINALLY catching an episode of Bad Universe! Woohoo! And it’s awesome!
You the man, Phil!
Edit: And getting to fly with the Thunderbirds! Lucky bastard you!
21. Joseph G Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 11:16 am
-Also, now I know how Haleakala is pronounced. I was imagining it all wrong!
Amazing picture. I really like the colors that the filter appears to bring out.
@ Sam H: That prominence looks exactly like cirrus clouds hanging over the sun to me (and they are clouds, in a way). Sweet that it’s made of superhot plasma and twice the size of Earth!!!
“Not only is the universe stranger than we can imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.”
That’s what I was thinking too. Looks like nice picnic weather on the sun
22. Peteuplink Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 11:23 am
Absolutely amazing image! Brilliant!
23. Erik Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 11:38 am
@3 – Surely you meant chemtrail.
>= )
24. David Pesta Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 11:41 am
@KenB: You may not have have noticed this, but there are no stars visible when you walk outside in the middle of the day on earth. I know, I know…that might also be fake.
25. Timechick Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Looks almost like a painting. Love the “cloud”. Looks like rain. lol
26. KC Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
IIRC if you “stepped” onto the Sun, you would sink almost halfway to the core before you reach anything as dense as water. Brings new meaning to the term “hot tub”!
27. Ce mai descoperim pe net? - Page 56 Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
[...] Seriously jaw-dropping picture of the Sun | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine __________________ 8,000$ Points Chase Betsafe in martie [...]
28. BillZBub Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 3:11 pm
Is there a video version of this? If not, I demand that Alan create one immediately.
29. Beelzebud Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
If I didn’t read the explanation for how this photo was taken, I would have bet money it was a painting. Thanks for turning me on to this great new addition to my wallpaper rotation.
30. JAFO Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Doesn’t the bigger picture involve how we keep it from burning out? Or how long it will last? It’s getting hotter and hotter….
31. Keith Bowden Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 5:33 pm
I think I had carpet made from that same material as your rug, Phil.
32. Stephen Ramsden Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Great photo! Bu the way, i taught him everything he knows!! Hi Alan
33. Ensolarnate Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
ensolarnate?
34. vibration consultant Says:
March 8th, 2011 at 10:49 pm
A steady hand, indeed! This is the kind of work that vibration consultants admire (and hope to enable).
35. Yeebok Shu'in Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 12:21 am
Wow, that’s one heck of an image.
36. Anon. Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 3:42 am
This will sound very offensive but if you look at the sun upclose, the swirly circles, don’t you think it looks like some man’s hairy belly? Just implying something. BUT! It is still an awesome picture especially since I would expect a big red fireball with flares shooting around the fireball.
37. John G Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 6:44 am
Tavi, walk on the sun?
Apart from the heat, you forgot to mention to ignore the gravity too to allow you to walk on the sun (your ‘is it solid enough’ Q).. A google search reports the gravity is 28 times that of Earth, so you’d be crushed dead and pretty flat very quickly – weighing 60kg here means weighing nearly 1.7tonnes there. Your bones can’t cope .
That strong gravity also compresses all the gas in the sun; it only doesn’t collapse in on itself because of the light and other energy caused by the fusion (initiated by the gravity) that expands outwards.
The sun is a third as dense as the earth on average (very rough estimate, from reading via google that sun is 333000 times more massive than Earth and from memory that its million times more volumous).
38. pligg.com Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 8:53 am
Seriously jaw-dropping picture of the Sun | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine…
Astronomy | Alan Friedman | Need your slice of awesome today? Then check out this truly astonishing picture of a detached prominence off the limb of the Sun:Holy wow! Click to ensolarnate….
39. Backyard Astronomer Nabs Stupendous Sun Photo | Go Ring On Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 9:08 am
[...] pick up of space snapshots as well as some-more hot object photos similar to this one. Click by to Bad Astronomy for a good outline of how it was [...]
40. Our Beautiful Star | DESKARATI – AN ECLECTIC MIX OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, HISTORY AND THE ARTS Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 9:38 am
[...] Edited from badastronomy [...]
41. Jaw-dropping picture of the Sun | Ubersuper Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 11:05 am
[...] Seriously jaw-dropping picture of the Sun by Alan Friedman. [...]
42. Glissade Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 11:35 am
It looks so organic. Like the super enlarged surface of a melon or something. Anyway I think I’m going to use ensolarnate as a user name somewhere!
43. Seriously jaw-dropping picture of the Sun – Nabeel's Cosmos Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
[...] Click the image if you want to see a bigger version of this magnificence. Via Discover Magazine [...]
44. Brian Carey Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Wild and cool!
45. Gizmodo Australia for Mobile » Our Beautiful Sun Looks Like A Peaceful, Furry Egg Yolk Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
[...] to forget how big it is, Earth is literally a mere dot compared to this beast. [Alan Friedman via Discover] Categories: Science Tags: astronomy, photography, Science, space, sun Next Back to Top [...]
46. Backyard Astronomer Nabs Stupendous Sun Photo | Mutual CognizanceSays:
March 9th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
[...] a whole collection of space snapshots and more boiling sun photos like this one. Click through to Bad Astronomy for a nice description of how it was [...]
47. Our Beautiful Sun Looks Like a Peaceful, Furry Egg Yolk « Advent Outpost: Tech Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
[...] The smoke to the left of the sun is actually leftover material from an erupting sunspot. Seeing the Sun so close and personal makes it easy for us to forget how big it is, Earth is literally a mere dot compared to this beast. [Alan Friedman via Discover] [...]
48. Amazing Picture of our Sun. « dnlgee.me.uk Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 5:50 pm
[...] Quote via Discover Magazine [...]
49. Close-up photo of the sun | Doobybrain.com Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
[...] The Discovery blog has an incredible photo of the Sun taken by Alan Friedman through a 90mm telescope and a special filter that only captures the wavelength of light emitted by hydrogen. Light rail train wraps van around a pole [...]
50. Khalil Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Phil, you always ensure I have a cool desktop pic.
Awesome imagery in both words and pictures.
51. Our Beautiful Sun Looks Like a Peaceful, Furry Egg Yolk [Photography] | That Soviet Guy Says:
March 9th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
[...] The smoke to the left of the sun is actually leftover material from an erupting sunspot. Seeing the Sun so close and personal makes it easy for us to forget how big it is, Earth is literally a mere dot compared to this beast. [Alan Friedman via Discover] [...
(Source: discovermagazine.com)

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