Comments on: Awesomely blemished inverted solar beauty

By: Weekend Links: Early Movie Concept Art – Mental Floss | Art

Weekend Links: Early Movie Concept Art – Mental Floss | Art — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:18:05 +0000

[...] I first saw this photo of blemished inverted solar beauty, I thought “well that’s cool ::shrug::” … then I clicked the picture to, as Phil Plait [...]

By: amateria

amateria — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:12:55 +0000

Yes, you’ve made me a big fan of Alan’s. His photos + your commentary = a great pairing! Thank you!

By: jackd

jackd — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:33:43 +0000

Looking through the solar ‘scopes at Dragon*Con was one of the highlights of the event. Watching the solar features live is even more wonderful than looking at these images.

Of course, another highlight was getting to meet the Bad Astronomer!

By: Wzrd1

Wzrd1 — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:48:34 +0000

@Danial J. Andrews, thanks for the info, the movie was well worth the look!

@VinceRN, I’d doubt one could expect solar activity to influence life, the magnetic field of the Earth traps charged particles, the atmosphere filters out ionizing radiation, so the only thing we overall get is light and UV on the surface. That said, this one is more in Phil’s field for more details.

By: VinceRN

VinceRN — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 17:12:15 +0000

Is our local star particularly volatile? I mean we know that there are spots and flares on other stars, but can we tell on stars similar to the sun? If so could that be a factor in developing life? Could it impact the speed of evolution? Would more active stars be a more likely place to look for life?

I’m woefully ignorant on this topic, and a quick google search only netted me a lot of links to wingnuts talking about global warming be caused by solar activity or the effect of solar activity on human consciousness.

I know solar activity has a measurable effect down here, all I have to do is turn on my radios to hear it, does it impact life? Has that been studied? (other than by the above mentioned wingnuts)?

By: CafeenMan

CafeenMan — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 16:48:49 +0000

Those aren’t blemishes – they’re features.

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:51:30 +0000

That is starkly beautiful, almost like an SEM of an ovocyte. When the planets fall into the sun, is it fertilization? Would explain that 2001 scene.

Incidentally, NASA’s solar dynamics observatory caught a beautiful coronal mass ejection yesterday. Just checked NASA’s sub-earth page and it isn’t on there yet–saw the video clip on the 3D sun app yesterday so worth watching when it is posted.

Edit. Found it at space weather.com under magnificent eruption. Or google sdo NASA magnificent eruption. It is on YouTube now.

By: Pathfinder

Pathfinder — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:03:58 +0000

Alan never ceases to amaze, his tumblr is filled with amazing shots.

Thanks for Sharing!