Comments on: Solar Cinco de Mayo

By: Tribeca Mike

Tribeca Mike — Thu, 10 May 2012 02:06:50 +0000

Superb photos indeed. Thanks for bringing them to our attention.

By: Se avecina una tormenta solar (o varias) | Noticias CEU

Se avecina una tormenta solar (o varias) | Noticias CEU — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:17:40 +0000

[...] (Vía Bad Astronomy). [...]

By: Solar Cinco de Mayo | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine « sharonquote

Tue, 08 May 2012 19:49:20 +0000

[...] Solar Cinco de Mayo | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. [...]

By: JMW

JMW — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:15:56 +0000

Is it just me, or does Active Region 1476 remind anyone else of the chain of Hawaiian Islands?…

…which are region of Earth that is also prone to spewing out hot bits from the interior of the astronomical body on which they are situated…

By: arabwhipmonk

arabwhipmonk — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:04:21 +0000

In my previous comment, I said you can see the photosphere in that image. According to the photographer’s site, its the chromosphere. Kindly excuse my ignorance.

By: Phillip Helbig

Phillip Helbig — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:43:03 +0000

Your RSS feed says that after this post there is one about La Nina, but the link to it doesn’t work.

By: Antti

Antti — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:23:59 +0000

Looks like an egg cell.

By: arabwhipmonk

arabwhipmonk — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:23:32 +0000

I think the inverted color picture above is centered on the H-alpha emission line, so we are seeing the abundant hydrogen, mostly in the sun’s photosphere. But then, on the left hand side of the disk you can notice some fuzzy floating thing. This I’m guessing is plasma at the apex of a prominence, emitting in that same wavelength. Anyways, my point was that the solar corona extends farther beyond the photosphere seen in the image, and a hint of that is present in the image itself.
A question I have, if I’m right so far, is how come the hydrogen in the photosphere and the corona, which are at vastly different temperatures, are emitting at the same wavelength? Is the majority of the hydrogen emission in the H-alpha line or does the most common emission change with temperature, since at higher temperatures, we could have higher energy states?
On a different note, some of the images of the solar surface on Alan’s tumblr remind me of those visualizations of ocean currents and winds released by NASA sometime earlier this year. Its cool that fundamentally different chaotic systems end up creating similar structures on different length and time scales. (Apologies for the long, digressing comment)