Space the beyond

fuckyeahspace:

The sun and a solar prominence (by Alan Friedman, via Bad Astronomy).

placeofpluto:

Just to put things into perspective, this is earth in a big solar flare. Earth and sun are roughly to scale. Yes it is indeed the pale blue dot in the middle.

More information about the flare here 

Sun Smiley 

serlenep:

Earth’s Sunset In Space

(Source: justgetsbetterandbetter)

Thierry Legault - Partial solar eclipse and transit of the Space Station from Oman

inothernews:

BLACK HOLE SUN   This ominous, dark shape sprawling across the face of the Sun is a coronal hole — a low density region extending above the surface where the solar magnetic field opens freely into interplanetary space. Studied extensively from space since the 1960s in ultraviolet and x-ray light, coronal holes are known to be the source of the high-speed solar wind, atoms and electrons which flow outward along the open magnetic field lines. During periods of low activity, coronal holes typically cover regions just above the Sun’s poles. But this extensive coronal hole dominated the Sun’s northern hemisphere earlier this week, captured here in extreme ultraviolet light by cameras onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The solar wind streaming from this coronal hole triggered auroral displays on planet Earth. (Photo: NASA)

itsfullofstars:

dvdp:

semiconductor: ‘black rain’
Solar wind and coronal mass ejections heading towards Earth.
Images collected by the twin satellite STEREO.

//thanks to nknzn for founding it again

itsfullofstars:

scienceisbeauty:

Volume visualization of the longitudinal magnetic field component in a 3D MHD simulation of solar convection. Blue and red denote eastward and westward flux respectively and the northern hemisphere is removed in order to highlight the structure in the equatorial plane. Rotational shear stretches fields into toroidal ribbons and sheets while vortical convective downflows penetrate through, cleaving and wrapping the ribbons and recycling the flux.

Source: National Center for Atmospheric Research, High Altitude Observatory, THE SOLAR DYNAMO

itsfullofstars:

Orange Sun Simmering
Credit & Copyright: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)

Explanation: Even a quiet Sun can be a busy place. And over the deep Solar Minimum of the past few years, our Sun has been unusually quiet. The above image, taken last week in a single color of light called Hydrogen Alpha and then false colored, records a great amount of detail of the simmering surface of our parent star. The gradual brightening towards the Sun’s edge in this color-inverted image, called limb darkening, is caused by increased absorption of relatively cool solar gas. Just over the Sun’s edges, several prominences are visible, while two prominences on the Sun’s face are seen as light streaks just above and right of the image center. Two particularly active areas of the Sun are marked by dark plages. In contrast to recent quiet times, our Sun is moving toward Solar Maximum, and for years will likely appear much more active.

(via APOD)

jeffkaplan:

Transit of ISS and Atlantis in front of the Sun - The last mission of Atlantis - Thierry Legault

completelybackasswards:

A solar storm, aurora from space, and aurora on Earth.

glxp:

Brand new HD imagery of our Sun, from the NASA SDO spacecraft. This one is the ultraviolet spectrum. Amazing. Click the photo for more images and videos.