The Sun’s surface, in high resolution
Click for movie (though not of this image)
Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was one of a number of pictures released today by the science team operating the new adaptive optics at the 60 inch Goode Solar Telescope (GST) at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California. It shows the fluffy surface of the Sun, made of many needle-like threads called spicules, with larger bits of plasma (in the center) flung upward and back along the Sun’s magnetic field lines.
If you click on the image, you can watch a 42-second movie produced by many images of a different plasma blob as it changes and evolves. Other short movies produced show bits of this material falling back quickly along those field lines as well as that fluffy surface of needles waving almost like tall prairie grass. The width of the image covers approximately 25,000 miles, which means you could fit about three Earth’s in this space.
To create these images from a ground-based telescope required new technology:
The GST system Cona uses a mirror that continuously reshapes itself 2,200 times per second to counteract the image degradation caused by turbulent air. “Adaptive optics is like a pumped-up autofocus and optical image stabilization in your smartphone camera, but correcting for the errors in the atmosphere rather than the user’s shaky hands,” says BBSO Optical Engineer and Chief Observer, Nicolas Gorceix.
Using this refined imagery, solar scientists will be better able to track and observe the Sun’s small scale behavior (actually quite large on human scales).
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Click for movie (though not of this image)
Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was one of a number of pictures released today by the science team operating the new adaptive optics at the 60 inch Goode Solar Telescope (GST) at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) in California. It shows the fluffy surface of the Sun, made of many needle-like threads called spicules, with larger bits of plasma (in the center) flung upward and back along the Sun’s magnetic field lines.
If you click on the image, you can watch a 42-second movie produced by many images of a different plasma blob as it changes and evolves. Other short movies produced show bits of this material falling back quickly along those field lines as well as that fluffy surface of needles waving almost like tall prairie grass. The width of the image covers approximately 25,000 miles, which means you could fit about three Earth’s in this space.
To create these images from a ground-based telescope required new technology:
The GST system Cona uses a mirror that continuously reshapes itself 2,200 times per second to counteract the image degradation caused by turbulent air. “Adaptive optics is like a pumped-up autofocus and optical image stabilization in your smartphone camera, but correcting for the errors in the atmosphere rather than the user’s shaky hands,” says BBSO Optical Engineer and Chief Observer, Nicolas Gorceix.
Using this refined imagery, solar scientists will be better able to track and observe the Sun’s small scale behavior (actually quite large on human scales).
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“Volcano as a bubble chamber” during solar minimums
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1342937X10001966
Looks like Azathoth
Read the article from T George…fascinating