See The Jaw-Dropping New 83 Megapixel Photo Of The Sun Sent Back From A Spacecraft Halfway There

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has returned an incredible 83 megapixel image of the Sun. ESA/ATG MEDIALAB

A Solution to the Faint-Sun Paradox Reveals a Narrow Window for Life

Back when the sun was 30% dimmer, Earth should have frozen solid. Yet water flowed and life blossomed. The solution to the paradox shows that we might have that faint sun to owe for life’s existence — with critical consequences for the possibility of life outside Earth.

In the early solar system, a close-orbiting moon would have contorted Earth’s interior, heating it from within. James O’Brien for Quanta Magazine

The Sun

An infographic about the Sun published on the Big Bear Solar Observatory website

Corrected sunspot history suggests climate change since the industrial revolution not due to natural solar trends

The Sunspot Number, the longest scientific experiment still ongoing, is a crucial tool used to study the solar dynamo, space weather and climate change. It has now been recalibrated and shows a consistent history of solar activity over the past few centuries. The new record has no significant long-term upward trend in solar activity since 1700, as was previously indicated. This suggests that rising global temperatures since the industrial revolution cannot be attributed to increased solar activity.

A drawing of the Sun made by Galileo Galilei on 23 June 1613 showing the positions and sizes of a number of sunspots. Galileo was one of the first to observe and document sunspots

What we knew about the Sun in 1891

Coronal Loops Over a Sunspot Group

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) images the solar atmosphere in multiple wavelengths to link changes in the surface to interior changes. Its data includes images of the sun in 10 wavelengths every 10 seconds. When AIA images are sharpened a bit, such as this AIA 171Å channel image, the magnetic field can be readily visualized through the bright, thin strands that are called “coronal loops”. Loops are shown here in a blended overlay with the magnetic field as measured with SDO’s Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager underneath. Blue and yellow represent the opposite polarities of the magnetic field. The combined images were taken on Oct. 24, 2014, at 23:50:37 UT. 

NASA

Sunset on Mars: wide angle view

The 34mm eye of the Mastcam aboard Curiosity took this view of the sun setting over Gale Crater on sol 956 of the mission (April 15, 2015). 

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / Damia Bouic

Telephoto view of sunset on Mars

Curiosity’s 100mm Mastcam camera captured this view of the sun setting over Gale Crater on sol 956 of the mission (April 15, 2015). 

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / Damia Bouic

Umbral spikes in a large sunspot

A large sunspot observed on Sept 2, 2013 showing umbral flashes and spikes. The radially extending thin dark filaments seen against the light orange background are inflows of plasma into the sunspot. The small streaks of various length visible inside the sunspot against the dark orange background are the umbral spikes, which are oscillating jets driven by sunspot oscillations. 

NJIT

Groundbreaking images of the Sun captured by scientists at NJIT’s Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) give a first-ever detailed view of the interior structure of umbrae – the dark patches in the center of sunspots – revealing dynamic magnetic fields responsible for the plumes of plasma that emerge as bright dots interrupting their darkness.

Size comparison: the Earth and a solar prominence

The illustration is from The Children’s Book of Stars, a book published in 1907 by Geraldin E. Mitton.

11,000 swirling magnetic tornadoes above the Sun's surface at any time

Magnetic tornadoes resemble tornadoes on the Earth but have a magnetic skeleton and are hundreds to thousands times larger in diameter. One such observed tornado occupies the area equivalent of Europe or the USA.

Cover page of the edition of Nature published on June 28th, 2012. Credits: Nature Publishing Group

Three taikonauts and the Sun

"After China's manned spaceship Shengzhou 9 successfully docked with Tiangong-1 space lab, at 12:57:25 June 19, I got an opportunity to take this picture of those two spaceship transiting the Sun." Credit: Su Shaojie / Spaceweather.com

Venus transit: full resolution details seen in extreme ultraviolet light

The 11 images on this page are cutouts from originals at full resolution (4096 × 4096 pixel), produced by the AIA instrument of the NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory during the transit of Venus on June 5-6. They are arranged as a series of snapshots showing interesting details of the event. In the extreme ultraviolet light at 335 Å captured in these images, the dark disk of Venus appears together with recognizable features of the Sun such as coronal loops, prominences and a large coronal hole.

2012-06-05 22:00:05 UT. This and the following images are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams

Venus transit: 35 snapshots from SDO in 304 Å ultraviolet light

The 304 Å channel of the SDO/AIA instrument, which traces mainly He II ions, allows to see the Sun's chromosphere and the solar transition region. The chromosphere, a layer normally invisible, only about 2,000 km deep, situated just above the brighter and denser photosphere, is related to phenomena such as prominences, filaments, spicules, plages. The transition region is a layer even thinner, placed between the chromosphere and the corona, in which the temperature rises dramatically, for reasons not yet fully understood, from about 25,000 to about 1-2 million K. In the images shown below, Venus crosses the Sun's disc, over this ocean of seething plasma excited by powerful magnetic fields.

Finally, a necessary explanation for the benefit of readers. I could add here a movie of the whole transit seen in this wavelength (there are several on-line). I preferred, however, a series of static images, even though the page loading is now very slow. But I thought that the transit of Venus is a phenomenon so beautiful and rare that it is worth waiting a little longer, to be able to observe quietly and clearly every step of the event.

This and the following images are courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams

Venus on the yellow Sun

Venus halfway across its path over the Sun (2012-06-06 01:16:35 UT). Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA

The image above was acquired by SDO/AIA instrument in visible light and shows the disk of Venus, halfway of its transit, projected on the solar photosphere. Groups of sunspots are clearly visible.

A cropping from the SDO/AIA full resolution image (4096 × 4096 pixel). Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA

Source: Solar Dynamics Observatory data archive

Venus "meets" a giant coronal hole on the Sun's atmosphere

The 35 images on this page show the whole Venus transit of June 5-6, 2012, as viewed at 193 angstrom by the AIA instrument of the NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. This extreme ultraviolet wavelength allows to see the sun's atmosphere, blocking the overwhelming glare of the photosphere. In this ultraviolet light, coronal holes become visible, and in fact a giant one is seen on the right side of the Sun. Venus appears approaching closer and closer the bird-shaped coronal hole, until 01:30 UT of June 6, when the disk of the planet passes exactly over the bird's "head". The series of images covers about 8.5 hours, from 21:15:20 UT of June 5 to 5:44:08 UT of June 6.

Croissants, triangles, birds: some of the weirdest coronal holes seen on the Sun

A dark croissant-shaped hole opened up in the sun's atmosphere, and spewed a stream of solar wind into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture of the vast opening during the early hours of January 30, 2011. Coronal holes are regions where the sun's corona is dark. These features were discovered when X-ray telescopes were first flown above the Earth's atmosphere to reveal the structure of the corona across the solar disc. Coronal holes are associated with 'open' magnetic field lines and are often found at the sun’s poles. The high-speed solar wind is known to originate in coronal holes.

Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA

The evolution of the sunspot region AR 1429

This video shows the evolution of the sunspot region AR 1429, that generated several major solar storms last year. The video covers nine days, from March 4 to March 12, 2011. Notice how the spot is almost always changing as its magnetic fields realign themselves. The images are white light images called intensity grams.

Credit: NASA/SDO

Reality and simulation in the 2012 transit of Venus

The first part of this video shows the transit of Venus on 5-6 June 2012 as seen from SWAP, a solar imager onboard ESA's PROBA-2 microsatellite. SWAP, watching the Sun in EUV light, observes Venus as a small, black circle, obscuring the EUV light emitted from the solar outer atmosphere - the corona - from 19:45 UT onwards. At 22:16 UT - Venus started its transit of the solar disk.

 

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO

19 ultra-high definition images of 2012 Venus transit from SDO

Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun. During its five-year mission, it will examine the sun's atmosphere, magnetic field and also provide a better understanding of the role the sun plays in Earth's atmospheric chemistry and climate. SDO provides images with resolution 8 times better than high-definition television and returns more than a terabyte of data each day.