Sunday, April 1, 2007

Mythical Phoenix Photographed in the Sun

This strange x-ray photograph taken by the Hinode spacecraft shows what appears to be a fiery bird in the sun. Legend has it that the phoenix bird, which symbolizes change, is born of fire. To solar scientists, it is simply the interplay of magnetic fields and million-degree hot gas which created the simulacra of a swanlike bird in the solar corona.

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