The Fantastic Flaming Fabulosity of Our Sun

I recently saw an incredibly detailed picture of a sunspot posted on facebook by a friend. I couldn't believe the clarity! I thought I'd post a few of my favorite sunspot and solar prominence images here. This image below simply takes my breath away! It is from 2002 and was the APOD for Nov 14th that year. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap021114.html

APOD Nov 14, 2002 Credit: SST, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

I love the pictures that I get from Astronomers occasionally via twitter!! They use all sorts of filters. Below is a collage of two of my favorite solar prominence shots from @FogBoundTurtle (Claude D.), an amateur astronomer, photographer from Burnaby, BC. claudedesrosiers.smugmug.com 

Images from Claude Desrosiers, Burnaby, BC

Here is a great one of the solar surface, also by @FogBoundTurtle
http://claudedesrosiers.smugmug.com/Nature/Astronomy/i-FffwwqK

Speaking of twitter (and Facebook), get to know Camilla Corona (Space Chicken), the mission mascot for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a super fun sciencey chicken that worked at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and is a STEM Ambassador at the Stanford Solar Center! @CamillaSpace is her Twitter handle!
I LOVE this next image from the Stanford Solar center! It has beautifully merged solar images into a quilted sun :-) It's their webpage cover! Clever!

Home page of the Stanford Solar Center

This next one is a solar prominence in X-Ray view from NASA
http://ixo.gsfc.nasa.gov/resources/imagesAstronomyScience.html

NASA X-ray images

AND from NASA's SDO - Solar Dynamics Observatory - At first light on April 21, 2010, the first photographs from the SDO were received. A WOW view of the high-definition sun was that of a dramatic prominence; an arc of solar plasma rising into the sun's corona. Here is a link to three year's worth of NASA SDO Images in video form with explanation!
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/first-light-3rd.html

NASA SDO images

Another fabulous APOD - from July 2013  This image below features sunspots crossing the sun. I still cannot believe the clarity and detail! Here is the explanation, directly from APOD
"Explanation: One of the largest sunspot regions in recent years is now crossing the Sun. This region of convoluted magnetic fields may well produce a solar flare that releases a cloud of energetic particles into the Solar System. Were a very powerful cloud to impact the Earth's magnetosphere, it could be dangerous to Earth-orbiting astronauts and satellites. Conversely, the impact of even a less energetic cloud might create picturesque aurora. This is the sunspot region as it appeared two days ago. The rightmost part of this region has been cataloged as AR 11785, while the left part as AR 11787. The darkest sunspot regions contain nearly vertical magnetic fields and are called umbras, while the surrounding bronze regions -- more clearly showing stringy magnetic flux tubes -- are called penumbras. Churning solar granules, many about 1000 km across, compose the yellow background region. No one knows what this sunspot region will do, but space weather researchers aremonitoring it closely." ~ APOD

Image by Damian Peach - http://www.damianpeach.com/about.htm

The final one I'll post today is of the 2012 Venus transit. This image is by NASA SDO and shows the entire transit sequence! Here is the www.SPACE.com info on the image:

"About this Image

On June 5-6 2012, SDO collected images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun in this cool space wallpaper. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured on June 5, 2012." ~ via www.space.com

NASA SDO Venus transit, 2012
 - http://www.space.com/16026-sdo-ultra-high-definition-view-2012-venus-transit-path-sequence.html

I'm sure I'll post more sunspot fabulosity at some point. Living with a mid-sized white star is awesome indeed!