Scientists Analyze Sunspots Up Close

Sunspots used to be very mysterious and vague. Sure, they look like dark spots against the brightness of the solar disk. But what do they really look like up close? In the set of video stills above, you can see how sunspots appear in close up. In the picture at the left, you can see how they appear in three dimensions. These views are now possible with recent imaging techniques and technologies used by astronomers. Click on the images to watch the associated videos.

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The Sun in Full 3D Revealed by NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space administration (NASA) has finally released the 3D pictures and movies of the sun made by the STEREO spacecraft. Pictured is a still of the full disk of the sun from one of the movies. You'll only be able to view the 3D effect in a proper venue with a couple of video stereo projectors. To view the STEREO spacecraft in full 3D using red and blue glasses, click here. For directions on how to make your own red and blue 3D glasses, click here.

An Angry Blue Sun in Photos of the STEREO Spacecraft

These are false-color photos of solar prominence loops in a magnetically active region of the Sun. The image at the bottom gives a progressive view of solar radiation all the way to Earth's atmosphere. Such radiation can be dangerous since it can disable satellites, disrupt power grids and radio communications on earth and cause intense displays of aurora over the polar regions.

The photos were taken by were taken by a suite of five telescopes on the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, which were launched on October 25, 2006. They will soon provide full awe-inspiring 3D images of the Sun this April.

Scientists have predicted stronger solar storms starting this year with the coming peak of the 11-year storm cycle to be upon us by 2012. "We predict the next solar cycle will be 30 to 50 percent stronger than the last cycle," said Mausumi Dikpati, a solar scientist The last cycle peaked in 2001.

ISS Photographed on Solar Disk

Look ma! It's the Sun! And it has a cute sunspot!

No kid, it's really the International Space Station (ISS) with the space shuttle Atlantis docked to it! See, it's just about to undock and return to Earth.

Thierry Legault captured the tanden moving across the solar disk from a cow pasture in Normandy, France. The ISS was 350 miles away from the Earth. The sun? Well, it was and still is at 93 million miles away.

Want to read about a movie about scientists who go on a mission to relight the Sun? Go to http://hotsup.blogspot.com/

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.

Super Solar Magnetic Vortex Recorded

This is a gigantic solar flare in the sun's chromosphere recorded by JAXA's Hinode spacecraft. Almost as big as the Earth, it begins as a magnetic vortex before spewing out as a solar flare. Watch the movie here http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/solar-b/videos07-031.html

Silhouette of Moon Against Sun

This is a picture of the sun by the STEREO-B spacecraft. The dark disk in front of it is actually the moon. The sun is purple because the photo was taken in four wavelenghts of extreme ultraviolet light. STEREO-B has a sister ship STEREO-A. STEREO-B lags behind earth while STEREO-A orbits a million miles ahead. The big gap allows the spacecrafts to take pictures of the same scene of the sun at slightly dirrerent angles to allow the production of 3D stereo movies of solar storms. View the small-format movie here: http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/img/stereoimages/movies/transit_label_sm.mov