I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU CLICK THE PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Spicules: Jets on the Sun
Credit: K. Reardon (Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, INAF) IBIS, DST, NSO Explanation: Imagine a pipe as wide as a state and as long as the Earth. Now imagine that this pipe is filled with
hot gas moving 50,000 kilometers per hour. Further imagine that this pipe is not made of metal but a transparent
magnetic field. You are envisioning just one of thousands of young spicules on the
active Sun.
Pictured above is one of the highest resolution image yet of these enigmatic solar flux tubes.
Spicules line the above frame of solar active
region 11092 that crossed the
Sun last month, but are particularly evident converging on the
sunspot on the lower left.
Time-sequenced images have recently shown that
spicules last about five minutes, starting out as
tall tubes of rapidly rising gas but eventually fading as the gas peaks and falls back down to the
Sun. What determines the creation and dynamics of
spicules remains a topic of active research.
My mind has now been properly boggled. Thank you :)
ReplyDeleteMy teenage son loves you for this find!
ReplyDeleteThat looks like the shag carpet in the family room of the house I grew up in!
ReplyDeleteThere is no way the sun looks like that. It is yellow like buttercups with spokes coming out the sides just like I painted as a kid. This reminds of the NASA conspiracy to pretend men could walk on the moon. They are just making stuff up.
ReplyDelete