Just in time for Halloween, astronomers have taken a haunting new portrait of the sun. In this color-coded image from the Hinode spacecraft, the sun glows eerily orange as though celebrating with earthly spooks.
The photograph shows the sun's corona -- the top layer of the sun's atmosphere, a region of extremely rarefied gases heated to millions of degrees. During the current, quiet phase of solar activity (sunspot minimum), the corona is dominated by small regions of closed magnetic field (called X-ray Bright Points) and large dark areas where the magnetic field of the sun extends into interplanetary space (called Coronal Holes). There is also a low level of activity as a few small active regions emerge from inside the sun.
When the image is seen at full resolution, compact loops of 3-million-degree gas are clearly seen. Movies made from sequences of images will show how the corona evolves, and what conditions lead to the entire range of solar activity from flares and large-scale eruptions to small-scale magnetic reconnection events and explosive jets.
The Hinode spacecraft (formerly Solar-B) carries three telescopes. This image was taken with the X-ray Telescope developed jointly by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Hinode's X-ray Telescope is the highest resolution solar X-ray telescope ever flown. It will show the structure and dynamics of the corona over a wide range of temperatures and a broad field of view.
Related Links
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
More pixs at JAXA
Solar Science News at SpaceDaily
Twin APL-Built, Solar-Studying Spacecraft Successfully Launched
Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Oct 27, 2006
NASA's STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft - en route as the first mission to capture the sun in 3-D - successfully launched tonight aboard a single Delta II vehicle from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 8:52 pm EDT.
