Starship Asterisk*

Reinvigorated Sun and Prominence

Explanation: Dramatic prominences can sometimes be seen looming just beyond the edge of the sun. Such was the case last week as a giant prominence, visible above on the right, highlighted a Sun showing increased activity as it comes off an unusually quiet Solar Minimum. A changing carpet of hot gas is visible in the chromosphere of the Sun in the above image taken in a very specific color of light emitted by hydrogen. A solar prominence is a cloud of solar gas held just above the surface by the Sun's magnetic field. The Earth would easily fit below the prominence on the right. Although very hot, prominences typically appear dark when viewed against the Sun, since they are slightly cooler than the surface. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System. The next day, the same prominence looked slightly different.

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CME's scare the beejezes out of me at how big they are. It puts things in perspective when you realise that you could fit the earth under that prominence easily ooooft.

2009 had 260 spotless days as well.

Redbone wrote:

2009 had 260 spotless days as well.

• • . King Henry V > Act IV, scene I
  KING HENRY V: Besides, there is no king,
  . be his cause never so spotless, if it come to
  . the arbitrement of swords, can try it out
  . with all unspotted soldiers:

Parity violation: Also like 1912/13 there are almost 5 straight years of very few spots in the northern hemisphere:

I enjoyed the graph by Redbone. I wondered what the jagged peaks were during each year. Sunsets per month? I wish there were some axis labels to help. (Perhaps I should recognize this graph and am just showing my ignorance. Sorry) Excellent APOD.
Dave

Late in February, I drove up to the top of Mauna Kea to take in the view and look at the domes that sprinkle the mountain top. A stop at the Visitors Center revealed a solar telescope set up by a volunteer. The scope also had a smaller scope mounted with it that had a hydrogen-alpha filter. Three small sunspots were visible at quite high latitude on the solar disk, and in hydrogen light, a nice fuzzy fringe was visible on the edge of the disk. Appears we're coming out of the minimum.

I’m no spotted soldier but I know a hot spot when I see one… and APOD’s a hot spot for anyone wishing for a peek into the majestic world that is out of this world.

The Sun is a blaze of glory… darkening tans and motivating electrons throughout our manmade gizmo populated planet and extraterrestrial inspecting robots that we mere humans are inserting into the virgin arena of outer Earth space.

Where would we be without the Sun? Dead I suppose without much contemplation.

emc wrote:I’m no spotted soldier but I know a hot spot when I see one… and APOD’s a hot spot for anyone wishing for a peek into the majestic world that is out of this world.

The Sun is a blaze of glory… darkening tans and motivating electrons throughout our manmade gizmo populated planet and extraterrestrial inspecting robots that we mere humans are inserting into the virgin arena of outer Earth space.

Where would we be without the Sun? Dead I suppose without much contemplation.

Well Ed; we probably wouldn't be dead; because we wouldn't be alive to begin with. Good thing we have old Sol to bring life to our speck (Earth) in the universe!

DaveBone wrote:I enjoyed the graph by Redbone. I wondered what the jagged peaks were during each year. Sunsets per month? I wish there were some axis labels to help. (Perhaps I should recognize this graph and am just showing my ignorance. Sorry) Excellent APOD.
Dave

Yeah, the peaks (and troughs) puzzled me too. I suspect that they are points representing the total number of sunspots counted in a three month interval, linked by lines. There seem to be four points in every year. The three month grouping provides a smoothing effect to the graph. A different temporal grouping would provide a different effect, three months being an arbitrary number.

orin stepanek wrote:Well Ed; we probably wouldn't be dead; because we wouldn't be alive to begin with. Good thing we have old Sol to bring life to our speck (Earth) in the universe!

Hi Orin, It’s good to hear from you. No argument from me… no Sun no life… but I was thinking in terms of the Sun suddenly removed from Space… an impossibility of nature, if you will. A speculative tangent bordering on physical craziness… well, maybe deeply immersed and beyond the border.

Without Sol’s gravity, we would head out into space perhaps following a Voyager. Without Sol’s light, I expect we would soon run out of batteries, waterfalls would freeze and it would be an unfortunate disruption for those aspiring for suntans.

I just hope the folks that predict Sol’s life cycle to not be off by 4.5 billion years. But that’s another story.

Without Sol’s gravity, we would head out into space perhaps following a Voyager. Without Sol’s light, I expect we would soon run out of batteries, waterfalls would freeze and it would be an unfortunate disruption for those aspiring for suntans.

Isn't it great that we can take Sol for granted most days.

Imagine if the sun did disapear like the island in lost when they crank that crazy pirate ship wheel thing. we wouldn't know about it for 8 minutes, so treat every 8 minutes like they are your last and enjoy life people!