Solar Magnetic Arcade
On July 14th, 2000 - solar active region 9077 (AR9077) produced a massive flare. The event also blasted an enormous cloud of energetic charged particles toward planet Earth, triggering magnetic storms and dramatic auroral displays. This striking close-up of AR9077 was made by the orbiting TRACE satellite shortly after the flare erupted. It shows million degree hot solar plasma cooling down while suspended in an arcade of magnetic loops.
The false-color image covers an expansive 230,000 by 170,000 kilometer area on the Sun's surface (Earth's diameter is about 12,800 kilometers) and was recorded in extreme ultraviolet light. Collectively resembling a popular "slinky" toy, the enormous loops are actually magnetic field lines which trap the glowing, cooling plasma above the relatively dark solar surface. After the flare, AR9077's activity decayed as it was carried farther across the Earth-facing hemisphere of the Sun by solar rotation. Active regions like AR9077 appear as groups of dark sunspots in visible light.
Info via APOD
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000720.html
Credit: TRACE, Stanford-Lockheed ISR, NASA
Animation source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuBemvFyHUM
http://spacephysics.ucr.edu/index.php?content=solar_wind/cc/cbastille.html
#space #nasa #solararcade #TRACE #universe
Great post thats one awesome gif , would this be like what they are trying to reproduce in a fusion reactor?
ReplyDeleteWatching this animation is like having sex with die Sonne. How accelerated is the clip? Light speed just allows appearances like that developing in real time given the dimensions, but that would make the sexiness a true miracle, like is the human scale of the mean life of the free neutron.
ReplyDeleteI sucked with good will on the teat of the provided link for that info, but could not find better than a static image, Corina Marinescu:)
Hey Boris...I added the link for the animation.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but I was a bit busy and forgot to mention it.
Thanks Corina. The roughly one second animation reflects like forty minutes of real time, so it's a speedup of perhaps 2500. Still within the range of animal motion if you consider the usual pace of a sea cucumber.
ReplyDelete