Developing Sunspot
November 27, 2012
Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) provides crystal-clear images of features on the sun's surface. This video shows a whirl of a new developing sunspot colliding with an existing spot that explodes into a major solar flare. The solar flare shown in this movie was captured on December 13, 2006. The flare produced high-energy protons that reached the Earth at the time of STS-116 Space Shuttle flight. The flare is shown in 3 different wavelengths.
Image credit: Hinode JAXA/NASA
Topics:
Environment, Technology Internet, Space plasmas, Plasma physics, Spaceflight, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sun, Solar flare, Hinode, light sources, Japanese space program, Astronomy, Space
