APOD: Half Sun with Prominence (2020 Nov 02)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
Post Reply
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5345
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am
Contact:

APOD: Half Sun with Prominence (2020 Nov 02)

Post by APOD Robot » Mon Nov 02, 2020 5:05 am

Image Half Sun with Prominence

Explanation: What's happening to the Sun? Clearly, the Sun's lower half is hidden behind a thick cloud. Averaging over the entire Earth, clouds block the Sun about 2/3rds of the time, although much less over many land locations. On the Sun's upper right is a prominence of magnetically levitating hot gas. The prominence might seem small but it could easily envelop our Earth and persist for over a month. The featured image is a combination of two exposures, one optimizing the cloud and prominence, and the other optimizing the Sun's texture. Both were taken about an hour apart with the same camera and from the same location in Lynnwood, Washington, USA. The shaggy texture derives from the Sun's chromosphere, an atmospheric layer that stands out in the specifically exposed color. The uniformity of the texture shows the surface to be relatively calm, indicative of a Sun just past the solar minimum in its 11-year cycle. In the years ahead, the Sun will progress toward a more active epoch where sunspots, prominences, and ultimately auroras on Earth will be more common: solar maximum.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>


heehaw

Re: APOD: Half Sun with Prominence (2020 Nov 02)

Post by heehaw » Mon Nov 02, 2020 11:17 am

Great photo today on: http://epod.usra.edu/blog/

Eclectic Man
Ensign
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu May 20, 2010 8:46 pm

Re: APOD: Half Sun with Prominence (2020 Nov 02)

Post by Eclectic Man » Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:24 pm

Great photo

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13373
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: APOD: Half Sun with Prominence (2020 Nov 02)

Post by Ann » Mon Nov 02, 2020 3:45 pm

heehaw wrote: Mon Nov 02, 2020 11:17 am Great photo today on: http://epod.usra.edu/blog/
It's a wonderful picture! :D

But since it has nothing to do with today's APOD, you should post it here.

Or why not keep it here and post in the Found Images thread, too? It's a lovely enough picture that we can certainly look at it in two places here at Starship Asterisk*! :D

Ann
Color Commentator

User avatar
VictorBorun
Captain
Posts: 1025
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2020 10:25 pm
Contact:

Re: APOD: Half Sun with Prominence (2020 Nov 02)

Post by VictorBorun » Mon Nov 02, 2020 7:48 pm

I wonder where the sun pole is.
At 20 minutes past twelve o'clock?

Post Reply