Images from SOHO of the Sun
Click on pic for larger GIF image EIT 304Å image captures a sweeping prominence -- Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona. At times, they can erupt, escaping the Sun's atmosphere. Emission in this spectral line shows the upper chromosphere at a temperature of about 60,000 degrees K. Every feature in the image traces magnetic field structure. The hottest areas appear almost white, while the darker red areas indicate cooler temperatures. Click on this link for TIFF hi-resolution image of the Sun's prominence.
Click on pic for larger GIF image A rapidly expanding "solar quake" on the Sun’s surface depicted here by the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI). It immediately followed a solar flare on 1996 July 6 and spread out more than 100,000 km at the solar surface. Scientists have shown that solar flares produce seismic waves, and gigantic seismic quakes, in the Sun's interior. They have tracked these seismic waves and found that "sun-quakes" closely resemble earthquakes on our planet. Click on this link for TIFF hi-resolution image of the quake.
Click on pic to enlarge image Solar rotation and polar flows of the Sun as deduced from measurements by MDI. The cutaway reveals rotation speed inside the Sun. The left side of the image represents the difference in rotation speed between various areas on the Sun. Red-yellow is faster than average and blue is slower than average. The light orange bands are zones that are moving slightly faster than their surroundings. The new SOHO observations indicate that these extend down approximately 20,000 km into the Sun. Sunspots, caused by disturbances in the solar magnetic field, tend to form at the edge of these bands. Click on this link for a TIFF hi-resolution image of a cutaway of the Sun's rotation and polar flows.
Click on pic for larger GIF image Radial and latitudinal variations of the sound speed in the Sun as derived from MDI measurements. Red = hotter regions than in standard model, blue = cooler regions. Concentric layers in a cutaway image show oddities in the speed of sound in the deep interior of the Sun, as gauged by two instruments. MDI measures vertical motions due to sound waves reverberating through the Sun, at a million points on the visible surface. VIRGO detects the solar oscillations by rhythmic variations in the Sun's brightness, a rapid change in the speed of rotation about the Sun's axis, between the faster-turning outer region and the slower interior. Click on this link for TIFF hi-resolution image of a cutaway of the Sun displaying the sound speed of the interior.
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