# Mysteries of the Sun



## Drone (Apr 10, 2012)

> NASA has just released five new videos called "Mysteries of the Sun". The videos describe the science of the Sun and its effects on the solar system and Earth. These five movies (Space Weather, Solar Variability, The Heliosphere, Earth's Magnetosphere, Earth's Upper Atmosphere) cover the breadth of solar, heliospheric, and geospace science, a field known as heliophysics.
> 
> With beautiful graphics and well-explained narration, the series has won awards even before its public release, including the 2011 Platinum 3rd Annual Pixie Award in the category of Motion Graphics, receiving compliments from the judges such as "breath-taking animation" and "Some of the best in the competition."



I totally agree with the judges. Absolutely breathtaking videos *thumbs up*

The five movies are available on DVD but you can watch them online as well:

http://missionscience.nasa.gov/sun

Very interesting videos. Plus, there's a guidebook (39MB pdf file) with full-color images, diagrams, and charts that will make the science of heliophysics clear for all readers. You can download it (see the link above).


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## panchavan (Apr 18, 2012)

Good one.... Amazed of it . . .


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## Drone (Jul 2, 2012)

well deserved bump:

Here's another interesting video which has got to do with Earth and Sun. 










This 4 min video tells us about hidden portals in Earth's magnetic field  
They're called X-points or electron diffusion regions. 



> "*They're places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the sun's atmosphere 93 million miles away*," explains plasma physicist Jack Scudder of the University of Iowa.



http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/29jun_hiddenportals/


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## DannibusX (Jul 4, 2012)

If I worked at NASA I'd call the probe GlaDOS


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## Drone (Aug 7, 2012)

A huge, dark-colored filament stretched across nearly half the solar face (800000 km in length) on August 5th. Here's the hires image:









And now here's some info about solar flares. According to James R. Webb, astronomy professor in the Department of Physics, solar flares are a pretty common occurrence, typically occurring in cycles. The current cycle is expected to peak in 2013.






Here's the video


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## Drone (Aug 17, 2012)

> This burst of solar plasma being hurled from the eastern limb of the Sun can release up to *100 billion kg* of material, and the speed of the ejection can reach *1000 km/s*. Some of the explosions approach the power in *one billion H-bombs*.



That's a very spectacular scene because Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) are sexy.



> Solar plasma is heated to tens of millions of degrees, and electrons, protons, and heavy nuclei are accelerated to near the speed of light.
> The super-heated electrons from CMEs move along the magnetic field lines faster than the solar wind can flow. Rearrangement of the magnetic field, and solar flares may result in the formation of a shock that accelerates particles ahead of the CME loop.












This video is gonna make me come .... over to that place.


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## Soylent Joe (Aug 17, 2012)

Jesus man, I love how progressive the science community has become recently. First _Curiosity_, now this.  My only hope is that the pace will hold on and speed up, so we can reach some great new technological achievements before we blow ourselves up.

By the way, *nobody* fucks with the Sun. Watch Sunshine.


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## Drone (Aug 27, 2012)

Another series of CMEs (coronal mass ejections) appeared on August 20. This bulbous CME certainly resembled a light bulb.

Here's the video:


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## qubit (Aug 27, 2012)

Drone said:


> Another series of CMEs (coronal mass ejections) appeared on August 20. This bulbous CME certainly resembled a light bulb.
> 
> Here's the video:



That CME is huge. It starts off a good fraction of the size of the sun and then grows much larger than the sun. Awesome.

And the sun is 800,000 miles across. Now stick that in yer pipe and smoke it!


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## Drone (Aug 27, 2012)

qubit said:


> That CME is *huge*. It starts off a good fraction of the size of the sun and then grows much larger than the sun. Awesome.
> 
> And the sun is 800,000 miles across. Now stick that in yer pipe and smoke it!



Yup they said the inner solar corona is 5.25 million miles away from the Sun.


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## Drone (Sep 6, 2012)

Another eruption on the Sun on August 31.

Here are two spectacular videos. One of them in HD










Mindblowing ...


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## Frick (Sep 6, 2012)

That cycle you spoke of earlier is ca 11 years btw. I remember the last one' they had some troubles in canada i think because of it.


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## Drone (Sep 11, 2012)

Another spectacular video showing how prominence erupted off the surface of the Sun around 19:00 UT on August 31, 2012 and just kept going. This video from the STEREO Behind spacecraft shows the prominence and the coronal mass ejection (CME) in which its is embedded as it leaves the Sun (orange, EUVI) and travels through the fields of view of COR1 (green), COR2 (red), and HI1 (blue) telescopes before it finally disappears from HI1 around the end of September 2, *still clearly visible more than two days after it erupted*.










It's the eruption which was posted 2 posts above.


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## Drone (Sep 29, 2012)

Another massive CME on September 27, 2012 on farside of the sun


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## 3870x2 (Oct 1, 2012)

It is difficult to comprehend the size of earth compared to these explosions.

After reading the title, I couldn't help thinking of MoTS: Mysteries of the Sith.


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## Inceptor (Oct 5, 2012)

That's pretty cool, but, CMEs happen all the time,  shooting out in all directions.
Let's hope there's no strong X-class solar event + CME that ends up making a direct hit on the Earth though.


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## Drone (Oct 5, 2012)

Another CME. Happened today (October 5). This time it's _headed exactly towards Earth_. Will get here in 3 days or something lol


\/

@ HammerON


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## HammerON (Oct 5, 2012)




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## Inceptor (Oct 6, 2012)

Not a very strong one though.
A strong X class flare would be thousands of times more intense.


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## Drone (Oct 20, 2012)

*Coronal Hole & Loops*

Using a gradient filter on imagery captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) helped create this stunning video 











And this is the image of a coronal hole on the sun:


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## Drone (Oct 22, 2012)

Solar flare on *Oct. 22*


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## Drone (Oct 29, 2012)

> Since its launch in 2006, the STEREO spacecraft have drifted further and further apart to gain different views of the sun.



http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/1-stereoreache.jpg

So now we can enjoy the full map of the Sun  Here it is:

http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/2-stereoreache.jpg



> This map of the full sun on Oct. 14, 2012, was created by images from, * in order from left to right,* STEREO-A, STEREO-B and SDO.



Fascinating!

http://phys.org/news/2012-10-sun-d-stereo-milestone-sixth.html



Edit:

Pictures of the day:


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## Drone (Nov 12, 2012)

Sun just sent another Filament Eruption & CME. Now it's Earth-directed 













> On Nov. 9, 2012, the sun emitted an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection. It's a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space and can reach Earth one to three days later.




Edit: A new one:










Strong M6-Class Solar Flare: November 13, 2012



> The Sun erupted with two prominence eruptions, one after the other over a four-hour period on Nov. 16, 2012. *The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium.* The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun's internal dynamo. An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma.



http://news.discovery.com/space/solar-eruption-121118.html
http://phys.org/news/2012-11-sun.html


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## Drone (Jan 6, 2013)

NASA's 3-minute solar cycle primer

A very interesting and informative video about solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and flipping poles












> The sunspot cycle happens because of the pole flip — north becomes south and south becomes north — approximately every 11 years. The poles reverse again back to where they started, making the full solar cycle a 22-year phenomenon. But the drama of the 11-year sunspot cycle receives the most press, as the sunspot cycle behaves the same no matter which pole is on top.



EarthSky


New Year's Eve Sun Blast Time-Lapsed By NASA | Video


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## Drone (Jan 7, 2013)

*What is a Solar X-Flare?: Sun's 'Richter Scale' Explained | Video*










The video below shows coronal loops on the Sun during January 5 through 7 – the arcs extending off of the Sun where plasma moves along the magnetic field lines. The brightest spots seen here are locations where the magnetic field near the surface is exceptionally strong. The characteristic temperature here is *1 million K*.










Solar Prominence


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## Drone (Jan 12, 2013)

AR1654 is a Monster Sunspot (aiming our way)



> Like an enormous cannon that is slowly turning its barrel toward us, the latest giant sunspot region AR1654 is steadily moving into position to face Earth, loaded with plenty of magnetic energy to create M-class flares - moderate-sized outbursts of solar energy that have the potential to cause brief radio blackouts on Earth and, at the very least, spark bright aurorae around the upper latitudes.
> 
> The image above, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory earlier today, shows the structure of AR1654 upon the Sun's photosphere - its light-emitting “surface” layer. Stretching many tens of thousands of miles, this magnetic solar blemish easily dwarfs our entire planet.



That's a helluva sunspot



> A sunspot is a magnetically active region on the sun that appears dark because it’s relatively cooler than the surrounding area 6,000ºF (3,300ºC) versus 10,000ºF (5,500º C). Sunspots are where solar flares are most likely to occur since the magnetic fields in these active regions can build up enough energy to break, releasing bursts of intense radiation into the solar system.



Here's video of that magnetic monster:


















> This triptych shows a coronal mass ejection or CME as it burst off of the sun in the morning of Jan. 13, 2013. The images were captured by NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). Credit: NASA/STEREO
> 
> On Jan. 13, 2013, at 2:24 a.m. EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME. Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME is a solar phenomenon that can send solar particles into space and reach Earth one to three days later.



http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News011413-cme.html


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## Drone (Feb 21, 2013)

Amazing video


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## Drone (Oct 24, 2013)

Here’s your amazing oh-my-gosh-space-is-so-cool video of the day — a “canyon of fire” forming on the Sun after the liftoff and detachment of an enormous 200000 miles long filament. The rift that formed afterwards was well over a dozen Earths wide!










That's so magnificent!


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## Peter1986C (Oct 24, 2013)

Somehow that music reminds me of the soundtrack of Tiberian Sun.

Cool video for sure.


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## Drone (Nov 20, 2013)

How come I can't edit my posts? Meh .. yknow youtube tags and blah

Anywhoo new amazing video:


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## Peter1986C (Nov 20, 2013)

W1zzard fixed that in the FS/FT thread, but not here for probably legit reasons.


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## Drone (Dec 15, 2013)

Multiwavelength Solar View


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## Drone (Dec 19, 2013)

New video


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## Drone (Jan 2, 2014)

The Sun, as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on the last day of 2013. This far-ultraviolet view shows magnetic activity on and above the surface of the nearest star to Earth.






Earth is closer to the Sun in the wintertime, how ironic


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## Peter1986C (Jan 3, 2014)

Drone said:


> Earth is closer to the Sun in the wintertime, how ironic



What you call winter time is summer time for the folks on the southern hemisphere, silly.


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## Drone (Jan 8, 2014)

Sun unleashes X-flare (the most powerful kind of solar flare), on January 7. It’s this year’s first X-flare.


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## Drone (Jan 30, 2014)

New video!











Old sunspot pops a new flare plus a Lunar Transit  Moon's appearance freaked me out lol!


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## Peter1986C (Jan 31, 2014)

The music perfectly fits the passing of the moon and the changes in "spectrum".


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## Frick (Jan 31, 2014)

http://alanfriedman.tumblr.com/tagged/sun

A dude with a good camera.


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## Drone (Feb 11, 2014)

Breathtaking video showing four years of SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) in four minutes.


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## Drone (Feb 21, 2014)

NASA released a fascinating video of solar flare filmed by IRIS


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## Drone (Feb 25, 2014)

Mammoth Solar Flare Is The Biggest Of 2014 Yet (Feb. 24)






NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory saw the flare growing in at least six different wavelengths of light, which are visible in the image above. This is classified as an X4.9-class flare, which shows that it is pretty strong.


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## 4ghz (Feb 27, 2014)

Too bad it's aimed off to the side, no northern lights.


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## Drone (Mar 2, 2014)

It’s a collage of images of the sun taken at different wavelengths, from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The different wavelengths reveal the aspects of the sun’s surface and atmosphere in a way one wavelength alone never could.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 2, 2014)

Still wondering why NASA hasn't probed the sun.  All it has to measure is the distance from the launching communication satelite and the pressure on its hull.  It would be phenomenal if it penetrated far enough in before disintegrating to hit something solid.

Dunno if you heard of this but it is supposed to launch in the next few years:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Probe_Plus
It doesn't send anything into the sun but it will be the closest satellite ever to orbit it.

It is expected to reach speeds of 120 miles per second while in orbit.  That's approximately three times faster than the current record holder Helios 2 at 43.63 miles per second.


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## 4ghz (Mar 2, 2014)

The heat would kill the probe long before it could even touch the outter surface.  It is about 10k Fahrenheit or 5600 Celsius.  All metal, even titanium, melts long before that temperature.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 3, 2014)

It would probably have to have a tungsten core, carbon lattice layers on top of that, and a system to drive pressurized gas (liquefied carbon dioxide most likely) out the nose to create a low-friction thermal barrier between it and the gases (think submarine-launched-missiles).

It would probably have to use Jupiter to gain velocity for impact with the sun.


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## kwangso123 (Apr 8, 2014)

The only visible star at daytime....


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## Drone (Apr 30, 2014)

Amazing new video showing twisters on the Sun!!!


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## remixedcat (May 2, 2014)

Give the sun some iron for it to be a strong boy!


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## 4ghz (May 2, 2014)

Bad idea.  Iron kills the sun.  It's the reason massive star dies, when the element starts fusing into iron, that's it. Iron absorb energy which basically saps the nuclear power of the star's core and stops the convection pressure, allowing gravity to win over and collapse the star.


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## eidairaman1 (May 2, 2014)

4ghz said:


> The heat would kill the probe long before it could even touch the outter surface.  It is about 10k Fahrenheit or 5600 Celsius.  All metal, even titanium, melts long before that temperature.



also the gravity the sun can produce would suck our little probes in and never let go.


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## Drone (May 3, 2014)

I want to drop some nice info about our closest star so here it comes:

Composition

Spectral lines

Chemistry of stars

Fraunhofer lines

Wavelengths of visible light

And finally *high resolution solar spectrum
*


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## Drone (May 7, 2014)

News, pics, and a video

Most Powerful Solar Telescope on Earth Rises Atop Hawaiian Volcano











Solar flares and spots


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## Drone (May 19, 2014)

Square coronal hole


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## HalfAHertz (May 19, 2014)

4ghz said:


> Bad idea.  Iron kills the sun.  It's the reason massive star dies, when the element starts fusing into iron, that's it. Iron absorb energy which basically saps the nuclear power of the star's core and stops the convection pressure, allowing gravity to win over and collapse the star.



From what I understand, the fusion reaction fueling the sun converts the (H) and (He) atoms into iron and other heavy elements, which slowly sink to the core and increase the mass of the sun. Once it reaches critical mass and goes into gravitational collapse, it turns into a super nova.


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## Drone (May 19, 2014)

It's not about reaching critical mass, it's about running out of fuel. No fuel, no pressure against gravity.


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## Drone (May 30, 2014)

New amazing zoom in video


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## Drone (Jun 5, 2014)

Enormous filament!


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## Drone (Jun 11, 2014)

The Sun as seen from Mars by Curiosity






New Solar flare


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## Drone (Jun 11, 2014)

Major X2.2 solar flare on June 10, 2014


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## Drone (Jun 17, 2014)

The image above, seen in EUV, shows a brief snapshot of the event with the column of solar plasma stretching nearly as far as the distance between Earth and the Moon.


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## Drone (Jun 21, 2014)

new Solar filaments


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## blobster21 (Jun 23, 2014)

Did you guys see this awesome animated gif ??? (found @ TPU's generalnonsense )
First time seeing it i was like wooow


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## TheMailMan78 (Jun 23, 2014)

blobster21 said:


> Did you guys see this awesome animated gif ??? (found @ TPU's generalnonsense )
> First time seeing it i was like wooow



If its accurate.


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## Drone (Jul 10, 2014)




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## Drone (Jul 23, 2014)

Magnetic forces pulled back and forth a long arch of plasma (known as a “prominence”) during the week of July 10-16, 2014.


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## newconroer (Jul 23, 2014)

Wow _Uranus_ is pretty big and this makes me want to play Mass Effect.


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## Drone (Aug 2, 2014)

^ lolwut












NASA's EUNIS sounding rocket mission spotted evidence (nanoflares) to explain why the sun's atmosphere is so much hotter than its surface.


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## Drone (Aug 11, 2014)

A very long filament hung across the sun's surface for over a week from July 31 to Aug. 6.




*Filaments consist of clouds of cooler gas raised above the sun's surface by magnetic forces. Normally they exhibit a great deal of instability and break apart in days or even hours.*


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## Drone (Aug 23, 2014)

New M-class flare










and another one on August 26


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## Drone (Aug 29, 2014)

New image of Sun ejection.






Photo by Alan Friedman


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## Drone (Sep 12, 2014)

*On Sept. 10, 2014, the Sun unleashed a massive X1.6-class solar flare aimed directly at Earth. Take a look at amazing photos of the solar storm*




































*Sunspot AR2158
*


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## Drone (Sep 12, 2014)

And videos


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## Drone (Sep 22, 2014)

nice and informative video


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## Drone (Sep 24, 2014)




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## Drone (Sep 30, 2014)




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## Drone (Oct 3, 2014)

New M-flare


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## Drone (Oct 8, 2014)

Solar filament stretches about a *million miles*​


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## Drone (Oct 13, 2014)




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## twilyth (Oct 13, 2014)

An interesting fact about the sun is that it doesn't have enough mass to support fusion just from gravitational compression at the core.  The only reason the sun works is because of quantum tunneling.  Since particles behave like waves and their position is determined by probability, they sometimes can appear on the other side of an energy barrier that otherwise they wouldn't be able to penetrate.  In essence, the particle disappears from one location an appears at another without traversing the distance in between, even if it happens to be inside the nucleus of an atom.

From Wikipedia:  





> *Quantum tunnelling* or *tunneling* (see spelling differences) refers to the quantum mechanical phenomenon where a particle tunnels through a barrier that it classically could not surmount. This plays an essential role in several physical phenomena, such as the nuclear fusion that occurs in main sequence stars like the Sun.


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## a_ump (Oct 14, 2014)

i think a lot of education would be better if it was that quick and to the point.


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## Drone (Oct 15, 2014)




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## Drone (Oct 15, 2014)

3 years of sun in 4 minutes


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## Drone (Oct 20, 2014)

New X-flare


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## Drone (Oct 22, 2014)

I have no words to describe this awesomeness ...























_Watch the giant spot rotate into view and grow right before your eyes in this 72-hour time-lapse video taken by SOHO’s HMI imager Oct. 18-20, 2014


















_


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## Drone (Oct 23, 2014)

Two nice videos. One informative and other shows Venus's transit in 2012


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## Drone (Oct 28, 2014)

new solar flare


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## Drone (Nov 1, 2014)

Fireworks on the sun











The largest sunspot since November 1990 is seen traveling across the front of the sun in these images from NASA's SDO


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## Drone (Nov 1, 2014)

Now some physics:
http://irischallenge.arc.nasa.gov/iris_weeklyquestions.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/multimedia/solar-rotation_prt.htm


*Solar differential rotation*:​








​The Sun rotates on its axis just as Earth does. Since the Sun is a ball of plasma, it does not have to rotate rigidly like the solid planets and moons do. In fact, the Sun's equatorial regions rotate faster (~*24 days*) than the polar regions (>30 days).

Here's the formula that represents the *sidereal rotation velocity in deg/day*​_ω_ (_b_) = 14.499 (_±_0.006) – 2.54 (_±_0.06)*sin^2(_b)_ – 0.77 (_±_0.09)*sin^4(_b)_​As you can see it's easy to calculate it for the equator (when b=0). Then _ω_ (_b_) = 14.499 (_±_0.006).

Roughly 14.5 degrees per day. And to get the time you just do this 360 / 14.5 ~ 24 days   
​


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## Drone (Nov 3, 2014)

new blast


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## Drone (Nov 7, 2014)

A mid-level M7.9-class solar flare emerged from an active region on the sun on Nov. 5, 2014. SDO caught the event in extreme UV light colorized in red and gold.


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## Drone (Nov 12, 2014)

Giant sunspot returns and it's bigger and badder than ever






Here's amazing timelapse video (you can find 720p, 1080p and even 4k version, just click the YouTube link)


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## Drone (Nov 18, 2014)

New image


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## Drone (Nov 20, 2014)

old pic of sunspot AR2205






And this one is new, sunspot AR2214






Look at the size of that thing!


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## Drone (Nov 24, 2014)

Sharper solar flare






New sunspots


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## Drone (Dec 1, 2014)

Active regions AR2221 and AR2222 have unstable 'beta-gamma' magnetic fields that harbor energy for M-class flares; they could "go off" at any moment. Any eruptions from the duo will probably be Earth-directed as they continue to turn toward our planet.


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## Drone (Dec 2, 2014)

Winter sucks monkey balls and I miss the Sun but what can I do ... just enjoying the pictures of the Sun

New coronal holes, filaments and flares


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## Drone (Dec 8, 2014)

New sunspots


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## twilyth (Dec 14, 2014)

Not sure if this was already covered - Plasma corkscrews may help predict CMEs


> For the first time, researchers have watched the sun’s magnetic field force plasma into a spring-shaped curl during a powerful solar eruption known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. The new observations contradict previous research suggesting that the twisted plasma structures are precursors of CMEs, which can disable satellites and disrupt air travel when directed toward Earth. The new findings appear August 28 in _Astrophysical Journal Letters_.
> 
> Understanding the interplay between the magnetic curls and CMEs could help solar scientists spot impending solar storms well in advance, says astrophysicist Angelos Vourlidas of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., who was not involved with the new study. “A reconciled theory would potentially allow us to see the early stages of a CME and issue warnings days instead of hours before it reaches Earth,” he says.


pix and video at link


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## Drone (Dec 21, 2014)

Recent solar flare


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## Drone (Dec 23, 2014)

New X-ray images and the video


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## Drone (Jan 5, 2015)

New coronal hole






On January 4, 2015 Earth reached its closest point to the sun for this year.










An interesting article about how we found the distance to the sun.


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## Drone (Jan 12, 2015)

Recent views of the photosphere


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## Drone (Jan 14, 2015)

The first notable solar flare of 2015 was an M-class flare that took place during the night of January 12


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## Drone (Jan 22, 2015)

Telescope on NASA’s SDO Collects Its *100-Millionth* Image






_The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured its 100 millionth image of the sun on Jan. 19, 2015. The dark areas at the bottom and the top of the image are coronal holes - areas of less dense gas, where solar material has flowed away from the sun.






The 100 millionth image created from previous images – each tile in the mosaic is 50 pixels across. All the sun pictures used in the mosaic show extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 193 angstroms.

_
Download 15000x15000 mosaic (170 MB jpg)


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## Drone (Feb 8, 2015)

A huge magnetic filament






A solar filament erupted in the shape of a twisted arch over a three-hour period (Feb. 4, 2015) with most of it falling back into the Sun. The activity in the lower corona was caught in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. Filaments are elongated clouds of particles suspended above the Sun's surface by magnetic forces. They are notoriously unstable.

Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA


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## Space Lynx (Feb 8, 2015)

Really awesome thread, thanks guys for keeping science on a PC website.  ^^


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## Drone (Feb 10, 2015)

Sun, Mercury, Earth selfie


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## Drone (Feb 11, 2015)

This. Is. Amazing.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Mar 12, 2015)

solar flares 


The sun unleashed its first superpowerful flare of the year on Wednesday (March 11), and the intense eruption was aimed directly at Earth, space weather experts say.

The monster X-class solar flare, the strongest category of sun storms possible, peaked at 12:22 p.m. EDT (1622 GMT) today, originating from a sunspot known as Active Region 12297 (AR12297). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured stunning video of the huge X-class solar flare as it erupted.


It's unclear at the moment if a CME is associated with today's event. However, the SWPC has already issued a minor geomagnetic storm warning for Friday (March 13) as a result of three CMEs the sun unleashed on Monday (March 9).


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 6, 2015)

No sign of @Drone for a while but the sun keeps shining regardless.



Solar Ropes Writhe on the Sun in First Hi-Def Pictures, Video




Twisted ropes of hot plasma and light on the surface of the sun that writhe like snakes can now be seen in high definition.

These solar flux ropes — also known as coronal loops or solar prominences — can be seen in stunning detail thanks to new observations taken by the 1.6m New Solar Telescope at the ground-based Big Bear Solar Observatory in California. You can watch a high-definition video of the ropes on Space.com. The ropes are created by invisible magnetic fields, which can be seen when visible material is pulled along them.

Scientists think these solar flux ropes are linked to explosions on the surface of the sun that spew high-energy particles out into space. These solar eruptions can cause problems for satellites and power grids, and a better understanding of the explosions and the flux ropes could provide an early warning system for Earth. [The Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History]


They used this telescope... Big Bear Observatory California.   http://www.bbso.njit.edu/


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## twilyth (May 7, 2015)

The mystery of why the sun's atmosphere is hotter than its surface - solved.



> A relentless onslaught of tiny explosions on the sun’s surface blast the solar atmosphere, researchers report. These eruptions, dubbed nanoflares, might help solve the long-standing riddle about why the sun’s corona is millions of degrees hotter than its surface.
> 
> “This is a real breakthrough to solving one of most important problems in space science,” James Klimchuk, an astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said at a news conference April 28.
> 
> ...


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## DinaAngel (May 16, 2015)

I wish I lived soo Long that I'd see us incapsule a star for power generation


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (May 24, 2015)

*Nasa reveals huge coronal loops on the sun's surface in stunning detail*
vid link at bottom of post
The image reveals vast coronal loops of material attempting break free from the sun, as well as the magnetic battles on the surface that cause it to twist and turn. Loops are shown in a blended overlay with the magnetic field, with blue and yellow representing the opposite polarities of the magnetic field.





Another incredible part of the video shows ‘coronal rain’ (pictured) streaming down onto the sun from a loop of material above the sun’s surface. Coronal rain is formed when hot plasma in the corona - the sun’s atmosphere - condenses and falls back to the surface





Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), illustrated below, was launched on 11 February 2010 and has observed the sun ever since.
It's goal is to understand how exactly the sun interacts with the environment around Earth.
By watching the sun in different wavelengths - and therefore different temperatures - scientists can watch how material courses through the corona, which holds clues to what causes eruptions on the sun, what heats the sun's atmosphere up to 1,000 times hotter than its surface, and why the sun's magnetic fields are constantly on the move.






A lovely timelapse vid
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-surface-stunning-detail.html#v-4162148376001


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jun 23, 2015)

The sun has unleashed three separate solar storms which have combined to smash into Earth's atmosphere.

Forecasters say the storm will continue overnight, causing huge aurora to be visible and even potentially causing problems with electricity supplies on Earth.

It could cause strong auroras as far south as the Canadian border with the U.S
The SWPC has a 30-minute aurora forecast tool to help people more easily see when and where auroras are expected to become active.







This solar storm is being caused by three coronal mass ejections — bursts of hot plasma shot from the sun — that met up in space today.

All three CMEs were shot out from the same region of the sun, a sunspot region called 12371. 

One ejection was flung into space on June 18, with another occurring a day later. 

The most recent CME erupted from the sun on June 21 and is moving more quickly than either of the other two Earth-directed bursts of plasma, a cosmic coincidence that has them all impacting Earth's magnetic field at about the same time.

The SWPC was originally predicting that, on Monday, the storm could reach G3 level — a 'strong' solar storm that could create brilliant auroras but also may interfere with satellites in space.


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## Drone (Sep 9, 2015)

Sunspot Group's Break-Up










5 Million Degree Tornado Churns across Sun


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## Drone (Sep 16, 2015)

New image


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## Drone (Sep 18, 2015)

Large Solar Eastern Prominence


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## Drone (Sep 29, 2015)

September 28 flare classified as an M7.6 flare.


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## Drone (Oct 2, 2015)

latest eruptions


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## Drone (Oct 13, 2015)

Giant coronal hole


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## Drone (Oct 14, 2015)




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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 14, 2015)

2433 looks like a gibbon.

it probably isnt one though.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 16, 2015)

*Astronomers have spotted what looks like an enormous chasm sprawled across the sun's surface.*
50-EARTHS-wide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_hole

The phenomenon, known as a coronal hole, is 50-Earths-wide and shows up as a vast patch of black on Nasa's newly released image.
Captured by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory on 15 October, the region occurs where a magnetic field fails to loop back down to the sun's surface instead sending out coronal material in what is called a high-speed solar wind stream.





*The image, take on 15 October,  was taken in wavelengths of 193 Angstroms, which is invisible to the human eye*

While the image may at first look alarming, it does not indicate that we are in any danger. Coronal holes are a common feature on the sun, though they appear at different places - particularly near the poles - and with more frequency at different times of the sun's activity cycle. They are generally more common when the sun is at a less active point in its 11-year cycle.
The holes' effects are usually harmless, although in some cases satellite communications and high-altitude radio transmissions can be temporarily disrupted. 





*A coronal hole was also spotted at the beginning of the year (pictured). In January the phenomenon occurred closer to the south pole *

They can also trigger the stunning aurora over Earth's skies - although solar flares and coronal mass ejections can also be responsible for the natural wonder.
The high-speed solar winds originating from this coronal hole triggered a geomagnetic storm near Earth that resulted in several nights of auroras earlier this month.





The hole is currently moving westwards - to the right, from Earth's perspective - so solar winds will remain strong, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials have said.

Coronal holes were first observed in X-ray images taken by astronauts on board Nasa's Skylab space station in 1973 and 1974. 





The material that constantly flows from the sun is called the solar wind, which typically 'blows' at around 250 miles (400 km) per second. 

When a coronal hole is present, however, the wind speed can double to nearly 500 miles (800 km) per second.


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## Drone (Oct 16, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> 2433 looks like a gibbon.
> 
> it probably isnt one though.



2433 has already disappeared but 2434 exploded today







Lower left


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 16, 2015)

Drone said:


> 2433 has already disappeared




SHIT...thats one less gibbon then

Several gibbon species are threatened by imminent extinction in the very near future. Gibbons not only include the most endangered apes but also the most endangered primate species of the world. The main reasons for this are habitat loss and degradation, hunting and illegal trade. Preservation of the tropical forest is imperative to gibbon survival - if it disappears, so do the gibbons. In China, for instance, the gibbons have already lost 99% of their habitat. In addition, they are hunted for food and for use in local medicine. Also, the illegal pet trade is thriving across the whole of Southeast Asia. Young gibbons are popular pets, but in order to obtain a young animal, its mother must be shot down from the tree tops. Often both mother and infant are killed in this process
http://www.gibbonconservation.org/03_threats_engl.html


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## Drone (Oct 16, 2015)

Pretty cool video


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## Drone (Oct 20, 2015)

Prominence


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## Atomic77 (Oct 21, 2015)

I don't know if you heard but theres this big hole in the sun thats 50,000 earths wide.


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## Drone (Oct 21, 2015)

Atomic77 said:


> I don't know if you heard but theres this big hole in the sun thats 50,000 earths wide.


Coronal holes were posted a lot in this thread. And what do you mean *50,000* earths wide?

The Sun is about *109.2* times as large as Earth, in terms of diameter.

new images:


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## Drone (Oct 22, 2015)

Sun facts:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html
http://www.suntrek.org/sun-as-a-star/sun-and-earth/comparing-size-sun-and-earth.shtml
http://www.windows2universe.org/sun/sun_size_distance.html
http://glossary.spaceweather.com/the-richter-scale-of-solar-flares/

And C4 class flare


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## Drone (Oct 24, 2015)

Sun featured a *very long filament that stretched at least half way across the Sun* (Oct. 20-22, 2015). _Filaments are elongated clouds of plasma that are tethered above the Sun by magnetic forces_. They are often unstable and usually break apart in less than a week, though they can last longer than that. Filaments are darker than most of the Sun's surface when viewed in extreme ultraviolet light, as it is here.


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## Drone (Oct 27, 2015)

Interesting research:

Earth was hit by two extreme solar storms more than 1000 years ago

Researchers found traces of a rapid increase of radioactive carbon in tree rings and ice core. Everywhere on Earth you can find traces of cosmic rays from the Galaxy and the sun, such as low levels of radioactive carbon.


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## Drone (Oct 31, 2015)

As a pair of active regions began to rotate into view, their towering magnetic field lines above them bloomed into a dazzling display of twisting arches (Oct. 27-28, 2015). Some of the lines reached over and connected with the neighboring active region. Active regions are usually the source of solar storms. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.


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## Drone (Nov 2, 2015)

There is a monster spot on the sun. *AR2443* has more than *quadrupled in size* since it first appeared on Oct. 29th, and it now stretches more than *175000 km* from end to end.






The sunspot has more than a dozen dark cores, many of which are as large as terrestrial continents - and a couple as large as Earth itself.






Solar Prominence on October 30, 2015!
Image taken by Philippe TOSI


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## Drone (Nov 3, 2015)

dorsetknob said:


> *GIANT SUNSPOT HIDES SPACESHIP: *Sunspot AR2443 is so big, it is attracting the attention of astrophotographers around the world



It's getting bigger and bigger


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## Drone (Nov 5, 2015)

Time to take some heat .. literally. It never hurts to revise simple things.






The source of heat for our planet is the sun. The sun's energy moves through space, then through the earth's atmosphere and finally reaches the earth's surface. The sun's radiation warms the earth's atmosphere and surface and becomes heat energy. This heat energy is transferred through the atmosphere by one of three mechanisms:

*Radiation*​
This type of heat transfer can be observed on sunny days. Your face will feel warm when you are standing in the sun. The sunlight is absorbed by your face and warms you face, without warming the air around you. The energy from the sun that is absorbed by your face is called radiant energy or radiation. Radiation is the transfer of this heat energy by electromagnetic waves.

Most of the electromagnetic radiation from the sun is in the form of visible light. Light is made up of waves of different frequencies. These frequencies are interpreted by our brain as colors. Infrared waves and ultraviolet waves are two types of waves from the sun that we cannot see.

Solar radiation mostly passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by all objects, such as humans, trees, flowers, roads, etc. These objects will then warm up. Dark objects, such as asphalt roads, will absorb and warm faster than light colored objects, which reflect the radiation back to space. All substances emit radiation, but this emitted radiation will be at a longer wavelength that our eyes cannot see. This emitted radiation, called infrared radiation, can be absorbed by the atmosphere. A substance's temperature will determine which wavelength of radiation the substance will emit and also the rate of emission. The higher the substance's temperature, the shorter the wavelength of the emitted radiation (think of how a burner on an electric stove turns from black to red as it heats up). Also, the higher the substance's temperature, the greater the emission rate of radiation.

*Conduction*​
Conduction is the transfer of heat from one molecule to another within a substance. Remember that *temperature is just the measure of the average kinetic energy or speed of the molecules in a substance*. Imagine you are holding a metal pin between your fingers and you place this pin in a flame. The pin absorbs the energy from the flame and the molecules inside the pin begin to move faster (warmer temperature). These faster moving molecules cause adjoining molecules to move faster and will eventually cause the molecules in your fingers to move faster. The heat is now being transferred from the pin to your finger and your finger will heat up. This is an example of heat transfer through conduction. *When heat is transferred through conduction, it flows from warmer to colder regions and will transfer more rapidly with greater temperature differences.* The rate of heat transfer through conduction also depends on whether the substance is a good conductor. It turns out that *air is an extremely poor conductor of heat. *Therefore,* conduction is only important in the atmosphere within the first several millimeters closest to the surface*. How then does the air transfer energy from one region to another?


*Convection*​
Convection is the transfer of heat through the movement of a fluid, such as water or air. This type of heat transfer can occur in liquids and gases because they move freely, making it possible to set up warm or cold currents. Convection occurs naturally in the atmosphere on a warm, sunny day. As the earth's surface absorbs sunlight, certain portions of the surface absorb more than other portions. The earth's surface and the air near the surface heat unevenly. The warmest air expands, becomes less dense than the surrounding cooler air, becomes buoyant and rises. These rising "bubbles" of warm air, called *thermals*, act to transfer heat up into the atmosphere. Cooler, heavier air then flows toward the surface to replace the warm air that just rose. When the cooler air reaches the surface, it is warmed and it too eventually rises as a thermal. This circulation is referred to as a *convective circulation* or *thermal cell*. These thermals can result in cloud formation.




​Convection transfers heat vertically into the atmosphere. In order for heat to be transferred to other regions, it must be transferred horizontally by the wind. *The horizontal transfer of heat by the wind is called advection.*

Clouds typically form when air rises. _The reduction in pressure as air rises causes the air to expand and cool._ Rising motion can be associated with convection in unstable air, lifting of air over topography, or lifting of air by fronts.  _When air rises, the air's temperature cools and may reach its dewpoint temperature_, at which point it becomes saturated. *Once saturation is reached, condensation occurs and the water vapor in the air will condense into tiny water droplets. As millions of droplets form, a cloud will begin to take shape*.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Nov 5, 2015)

conduction, convection and radiation in Wendys Nightmare (my PC)

(just because i had it all set up as i saw @Drone post)

and yes the vid says my name and no i dont care, come and see what a warm welcome you will receive in the valleys where half the population have been drinking and eating magic mushrooms and the other half have been eating magic mushrooms and drinking.


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## Drone (Nov 5, 2015)

Sun is so restless these days, flare after flare! New images by SOHO and SDO and a video


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## Drone (Nov 6, 2015)

Sun in ... UHD


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## Drone (Nov 10, 2015)

On gears around an uncaring sun
It doesn't know what it gave
As the bone moon winds 'round again​
Isaac Brock​





Nov. 9th, the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2449 erupted, producing an M3-class solar flare and a bright CME. Radio emissions from shock waves in the CME suggest that it blew away from the sun faster than 950 km/s. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the expanding cloud. The CME is not heading directly for Earth.


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## Drone (Nov 16, 2015)

Filament suspended by magnetic forces above the sun's surface. From end to end, the structure stretches > *300 000 km.






Numerous tongues of plasma lashing out as the competing magnetic forces grappled with each other.*


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## Drone (Nov 18, 2015)

Another burst


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## Drone (Jan 29, 2016)

Magnificent image of Solar spots in 2001. Unfortunately back in the day I wasn't interested in this beautiful nuclear reactor that still manages to make me happy. So sorry that I wasted so much time I really hope it's not too late. Whatever fuck this shit, I'm not caving in.






And here's amazing video: Highlights from SOHO's 20 Years in Space. Well done!


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## Drone (Jan 30, 2016)




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## Drone (Feb 3, 2016)

short but nice educational videos by Nova PBS


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## Drone (Feb 15, 2016)

SDO: Year 6 Ultra-HD










Download UHD 60 fps (*50 GB* lolwut wtf)

Video covers a time period of January 2, 2015 to January 28, 2016 at a cadence of one frame every hour, or 24 frames per day. This timelapse is repeated with narration by solar scientist Nicholeen Viall and contains close-ups and annotations.


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## Caring1 (Feb 15, 2016)

Drone said:


> SDO: Year 6 Ultra-HD
> Video covers a time period of January 2, 2015 to January 28, 2016 at a cadence of one frame every hour, or 24 frames per day. This timelapse is repeated with narration by solar scientist Nicholeen Viall and contains close-ups and annotations.


Great video, and very fitting music, the commentary answered my questions before I could write them down.


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## Drone (Feb 15, 2016)

An elongated solar _prominence_ rose up above the Sun and slowly unraveled over 17 hours (Feb. 3, 2016). Prominences are clouds of gas suspended above the Sun by magnetic forces. You can see the* plasma streaming along the magnetic field lines before it thins out and gradually breaks away from its tethers*. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.






Sun today


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## Drone (Feb 17, 2016)

That's weird. Almost no sunspots.

Brand new video, just released


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## Drone (Feb 25, 2016)

Two short b/w but really impressive videos of solar prominences taken at McDonald Observatory


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## Drone (Mar 9, 2016)




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## Drone (Mar 13, 2016)

Pacific solar eclipse seen from Proba-2










Sun today (in different wavelengths)


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## Drone (Mar 14, 2016)

Sun today






Eclipse


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## Drone (Mar 22, 2016)

This eerie colored orb is nothing less than the life-giver of the Solar System. It is the Sun, the prodigious nuclear reactor that sits at the heart of our planetary system and supplies our world with all the light and heat needed for us to exist.

To the human eye, the Sun is a burning light in the sky. It is dangerous to look at it directly unless some special filtering is used to cut out most of the light pouring from its incandescent surface.

However, to the electronic eyes of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), the Sun appears a place of delicate beauty and detail.

SOHO's extreme-UV telescope was used to take these images. This telescope is sensitive to 4 wavelengths of extreme-UV light, and the 3 shortest were used to build this image. Each wavelength has been color-coded to highlight the different temperatures of gas in the Sun.

The gas temperature is traced by iron atoms, where rising temperature strips increasing numbers of electrons from around the nucleus.

An iron atom usually contains 26 electrons. In this image, blue shows iron at a temperature of 1 million degrees Celsius, having lost 8 or 9 electrons. Yellow shows iron at 1.5 million degrees (11 lost electrons) and red shows iron at 2.5 million degrees (14 lost electrons).

These atoms all exist in the outer part of the Sun's atmosphere known as the *corona*. How the corona is heated to millions of degrees remains the subject of scientific debate.

The constant monitoring of the Sun's atmosphere with SOHO, and with other Sun-staring spacecraft like the Solar Dynamics Observatory and Proba-2, is allowing solar physicists to build up a detailed picture of the way the corona behaves. This gives them insight into the physical processes that give rise to the corona and its behavior.


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## Drone (Mar 23, 2016)

New video: SDO Sees Circular Outburst










Sun Today


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## Drone (Apr 8, 2016)

A long _coronal hole_ has rotated so that was temporarily facing right towards Earth. These holes are magnetically open areas from which high-speed solar wind streams into space. This solar wind can cause aurora when it reaches Earth several days from now. So, those in higher latitudes might want to keep an eye out for some beautiful displays.


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## Drone (Apr 14, 2016)

You gotta love AR2529. The giant sunspot has morphed into a heart more than three times wider than Earth.


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## Drone (Apr 18, 2016)

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this imagery of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash – around 8:30 p.m. EDT on April 17, 2016. A loop of solar material can also be seen rising up off the right limb of the Sun.






This flare is classified as an M6.7 class flare. M-class flares are a tenth the size of the most intense flares, the X-class flares. The number provides more information about its strength. An M2 is twice as intense as an M1, an M3 is three times as intense, etc.











This flare came from an area of complex magnetic activity on the Sun.


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## Drone (May 3, 2016)

On 9 May, at 11:10 GMT, Mercury will begin making its way across the face of the Sun – an astronomical event known as a *transit*. During the transit, which will last for several hours and be at least partially visible across most of the world, the planet will be seen as a small black dot silhouetted against our star.

To mark the event, this week's Space Science Image of the Week allows Mercury to take centre stage. Mercury is a remarkable planet: it's the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System, with an orbit that is both the fastest and the most eccentric. It boasts fascinating surface geology, including countless craters, ridges, highlands, plains, mountains and valleys.

This image offers an intriguing view of Mercury's *Kertész crater*, as viewed by NASA's Messenger orbiter. Reminiscent of a 'Magic Eye' optical illusion, the image may show one of two things: either a mound bulging out of the planetary surface, looming towards the camera like a dome, or – correctly – a crater that dips into Mercury's crust.

















*****

An elongated, streaming arch of solar material rose up at the Sun's edge before breaking apart in this animation of imagery captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on April 28, 2016. While some of the solar material fell back into the sun, the disintegration of this magnetic arch also sent some particles streaming into space. These details were captured in a type of light that's invisible to human eyes, called extreme ultraviolet. The images were colorized in gold for easy viewing.


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## Drone (May 10, 2016)

For a split second during Mercury's 7-hour transit, the ISS raced across the face of the Sun over Philadelphia










NASA's SDO Captures Mercury Transit Time-lapse


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## Drone (Jul 14, 2016)




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## Drone (Jul 15, 2016)

Sun today






On July 6, 2016, engineers instructed NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory to roll 360 degrees on one axis. SDO dutifully performed the 7-hour maneuver, while producing some dizzying data: For this period of time, SDO images – taken every 12 seconds – appeared to show the Sun spinning, as if stuck on a pinwheel.

This video was taken in extreme UV wavelengths that are typically invisible to our eyes, but was colorized here in gold for easy viewing.


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## Drone (Jul 17, 2016)

New sunspots



















Educational videos by astro.unl.edu


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## Drone (Jul 27, 2016)

Two old videos:

THEMIS Discovers Biggest Breach of Earth's Magnetosphere (2008)










What are Solar Flares? - Dr. James Webb - FIU (2012)










But knowledge is knowledge, better late than never lol

Here's a new one:

The sun emitted 3 mid-level solar flares on July 22 and 23, 2016


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## Drone (Jul 30, 2016)

Sun today






First images from NASA's SDO (April 21, 2010)


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## Drone (Aug 1, 2016)

Sunspot AR2570 is small and quiet. Solar activity remains low. Credit: SDO/HMI


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## Drone (Aug 6, 2016)

Nuclear Fusion in the Sun










On July 24, 2016, NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) captured a mid-level solar flare


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## Drone (Aug 24, 2016)

Solar wind flowing from the indicated coronal holes could reach Earth on Aug. 25. Credit: NASA/SDO.






Simple yet clever experiment


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## Caring1 (Aug 24, 2016)

So what effect will these solar winds have on us?
Will I have to don my tin foil hat to stop the radiation?


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Aug 24, 2016)

It affects it by the intense clouds of high energy particles that it often contains which are produced by solar storms. When these clouds, called coronal mass ejections, make their way to the Earth in 3-4 days, they collide with the magnetic field of the Earth and cause it to change its shape. The particles then leak through the magnetic field of the Earth, particularly near the north and south poles, and cause still more changes to the magnetic field of the Earth, this time at even lower altitudes closer to the ground. These changes can produce many problems with electrical equipment. The way on which solar wind 'plasma' invades the Earth's magnetic field and seeps into the inner regions where the van Allen radiation belts are located, is not very well known. Also, in the direction opposite the Sun, the Earth's magnetic field is pulled way out into interplanetary space making it look like a comet. In this 'geotail' region many different electrical disturbances take place that can accelerate particles to very high speeds and energies. All of this is made much more violent by the solar wind, especially the storm clouds that the Sun launches our way from time to time!



The most serious effects on human activity occur during major geomagnetic storms. It is now understood that the major geomagnetic storms are induced by coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Coronal mass ejections are usually associated with flares, but sometimes no flare is observed when they occur. Like flares, CMEs are more frequent during the active phase of the Sun's approximately 11 year cycle. The last maximum in solar activity, the maximum of the current solar cycle, was in April, 2014.

Coronal mass ejections are more likely to have a significant effect on our activities than flares because they carry more material into a larger volume of interplanetary space, increasing the likelihood that they will interact with the Earth. While a flare alone produces high-energy particles near the Sun, some of which escape into interplanetary space, a CME drives a shock wave which can continuously produce energetic particles as it propagates through interplanetary space. When a CME reaches the Earth, its impact disturbs the Earth's magnetosphere, setting off a geomagnetic storm. A CME typically takes 3 to 5 days to reach the Earth after it leaves the Sun. Observing the ejection of CMEs from the Sun provides an early warning of geomagnetic storms. Only recently, with SOHO, has it been possible to continuously observe the emission of CMEs from the Sun and determine if they are aimed at the Earth.

One serious problem that can occur during a geomagnetic storm is damage to Earth-orbiting satellites, especially those in high, geosynchronous orbits. Communications satellites are generally in these high orbits. Either the satellite becomes highly charged during the storm and a component is damaged by the high current that discharges into the satellite, or a component is damaged by high-energy particles that penetrate the satellite. We are not able to predict when and where a satellite in a high orbit may be damaged during a geomagnetic storm.

Astronauts on the Space Station are not in immediate danger because of the relatively low orbit of this manned mission. They do have to be concerned about cumulative exposure during space walks. The energetic particles from a flare or CME would be dangerous to an astronaut on a mission to the Moon or Mars, however.

Another major problem that has occurred during geomagnetic storms has been the temporary loss of electrical power over a large region. The best known case of this occurred in 1989 in Quebec. High currents in the magnetosphere induce high currents in power lines, blowing out electric transformers and power stations. This is most likely to happen at high latitudes, where the induced currents are greatest, and in regions having long power lines and where the ground is poorly conducting.


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## Drone (Aug 25, 2016)

Sun today






Accurate and informative Top 10


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## Drone (Sep 1, 2016)

Using NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), scientists have for the first time imaged the edge of the Sun and described that transition, where the solar wind starts. Defining the details of this boundary helps us learn more about our solar neighborhood, which is bathed throughout by solar material – a space environment that we must understand to safely explore beyond our planet.


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## Drone (Sep 22, 2016)

Hinode's 10th Anniversary


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## Drone (Oct 25, 2016)

Launched 10 years ago, on Oct. 25, 2006, the twin spacecraft of NASA's STEREO mission – short for Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory – have given us unprecedented views of the Sun, including the first-ever simultaneous view of the entire star at once.


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## Drone (Oct 25, 2016)

3D 4k for STEREO's 10th Anniversary


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Oct 26, 2016)

Solar winds triggered a giant geomagnetic storm this week, raising fears that they could cripple power supplies.

The charged particles are coming from a coronal hole on the sun that is currently facing Earth.

If Earth's magnetic field was hit by charged particles the effects could also include radar and satellite interference, causing problems phone and internet networks and navigation services.

Power grid operators in the US were put on alert yesterday following concerning space weather forecasts. But the impact could be felt all over the world.

Warnings were issued by the operator of the biggest power grid in the US, PJM Interconnection LLC, as well as by Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which manages high-voltage power lines across North America, reports Bloomberg. 


The aurora forecast is looking favourable


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## Drone (Oct 31, 2016)




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## Drone (Nov 29, 2016)

Nov. 14-18, 2016 Sun was hitting its lowest level of solar activity since 2011 as it gradually marches towards solar minimum. Sun has a pendulum-like pattern of solar cycle of activity that extends over about an 11-year period. The last peak of activity was in early 2014. At this point in time, the sunspot numbers seem to be sliding downwards faster than expected, though the solar minimum level should not occur until 2021. No doubt more and larger sunspots will inevitably appear, but we'll just have to wait and see. Credit: SDO, NASA.

New video from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory:


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## Drone (Dec 2, 2016)

The Mystery of Coronal Heating


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## Drone (Dec 3, 2016)

UHD movie showing the southern hemisphere


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## Drone (Jan 17, 2017)

ALMA Starts Observing the Sun


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## Drone (Jan 18, 2017)

NAOJ's Solar Tower Telescope. Narrator: Kotono Mitsuishi, an actress known for Sailor Moon

















*Sun in 2016*

*



*


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## Drone (Feb 3, 2017)




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## Drone (Feb 27, 2017)

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: Year 7 Ultra HD (4k)










First Solar Images from NOAA's GOES-16 Satellite


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## Drone (Mar 2, 2017)




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## Drone (Mar 24, 2017)




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## Drone (Apr 7, 2017)

April 2017 Solar Flares: brand new beautiful HD video from NASA SDO:


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## Drone (Apr 13, 2017)




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## Drone (May 26, 2017)

On May 25, 2017, SDO experienced a partial solar eclipse in space when it observed the moon passing in front of the sun.


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## Atomic77 (Jun 17, 2017)

tip never look at the sun with out some kinda filter it can hurt your eyes.


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## Drone (Aug 11, 2017)




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## Drone (Aug 17, 2017)




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## Drone (Sep 8, 2017)

Coronal hole


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## Drone (Sep 11, 2017)

*The Sun’s largest solar flare in more than 12 years – and the 8th largest since modern records began in 1996 – has been captured in high detail by a team of researchers from the University of Sheffield and Queen’s University Belfast.*

The large solar bursts have energies comparable to *one billion hydrogen bombs* and can drive plasma away from the solar surface at speeds of up to *2000 km/s* in phenomena known as Coronal Mass Ejections.


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## Drone (Jan 6, 2018)

New NatGeo video and photo


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## Space Lynx (Jan 6, 2018)

@Drone Is it just me or do the size of the black spots on the sun seem to be bigger than usual?  End of all life incoming?


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## Drone (Jan 6, 2018)

lynx29 said:


> @Drone Is it just me or do the size of the black spots on the sun seem to be bigger than usual?  End of all life incoming?


Nah, not just you lol. Yup sunspots are really big. Every now and then sunspots the size of Jupiter (~ 4 billion km²) appear on the Sun's surface, but it's normal  We ain't gonna die … yet


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## Drone (Jan 9, 2018)

This montage of 365 images shows the changing activity of our Sun through the eyes of ESA’s Proba-2 satellite during 2017, along with a partial eclipse for good measure.


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## Drone (Jul 25, 2018)




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## Drone (Aug 8, 2018)




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## FCG (Mar 18, 2019)

CMEs and solar flares in the sun have their counterpart in hurricanes here on Earth.  Same mechanism, different body (star vs. planet).  That is to say, star, inside-out-star, or perhaps, planet, inside-out-planet.  Whichever you prefer.


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## FCG (Mar 19, 2019)

Low sun spot activity -> low "extreme" weather events on Earth....

High sun spot activity -> significant increase in "extreme" Earth-weather events.... with emphasis on hurricane/tornado

But sun spots, we are told, are _*cooler *_than the surrounding corona.  This statement is based on observation of "darkened area" in the region of the CME.  How can this be?  How can a HUGE ejection of extremely-energetic particles result in a *reduced *temperature in the area of incidence?

It's like it's *inverted *(reciprocal, maybe?)... hmm

Colder... perceived colder by our senses as the thermal motion has exceeded 1 natural unit (for temperature, recall temperature is simply a measure of thermal motion... an effective net inward linear vibration in the time region of the atom) and that motion continues into a 2nd scalar dimension wherein a further increase in temperature is observed as an increase in *inverse-temperature* (a reduction in temperature, from our perspective).  While the thermal motion continues to increase, and the expression is reversed due to the magnitude of the motion... what is hotter *appears *progressively cooler to both our senses and our instrumentation... we are *observing FASTER THAN LIGHT (FLT) *motion.

The "speed of light" is *not* a limit.

It's a *constant* of proportionality.  Specifically, s/t = 1 = c or 1 unit of space to 1 unit of time.

One guy (Einstein) claims FTL motion is not possible.  One guy... and everyone's swallow it's deep and hard and now we can't even conceive of the alternative... human spirit is being _*crushed*_.  Think for yourself!

P.S. No, FTL motion does not allow anything to go "back in time" a.k.a "time travel."

EDIT: Attachments (2) added for those that would like to see more


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## xtreemchaos (Mar 19, 2019)

sun spots are strange when we look at them from earth with just what we see, the temp difference is just mind blowing but the truth is we dont really know the sun very well, we make guesses with a bit of data we get but its sketchy at best.
i tend to forget about the science when working and just love Sol for the mightyness of it. sun spots are one of most wonderful things to watch in realtime and when there flaring there very dynamic and get me spelbound untill the next bit of cloud comes along, thay come all different sizes some looking like animals or other crazy shapes but i can tell one thing sol never dissapoints.
heres a shot from last year which also shows a caterpilla fillament which is quite rare.



opps ive just realised where in 2019 this is from 2017 i lost a year somewhere


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## Drone (Mar 19, 2019)

@xtreemchaos  nice shot there!

Short video by NAOJ


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## xtreemchaos (Mar 19, 2019)

thanks Drone , we had a nice few days imaging when i caught that one, theres another AR coming on to the discs. its been quiet and cloudy for the most of this year mainly just proms to snap but theres is 2 small spots today my friend told me but 100% cloud here in south wales.


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## Drone (Jul 4, 2019)

This image shows the Sun through various phases of the total solar eclipse visible over ESO's La Silla Observatory on 2 July 2019.


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## Drone (Jan 30, 2020)

First detailed images of a turbulent surface of the Sun


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## Drone (Jun 27, 2020)




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## pyrotenax (Sep 30, 2021)

Images of the Sun , taken through the Swedish Solar Telescope ...


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## Space Lynx (Jul 10, 2022)

Can someone please explain to me the relationship of the sun and our ozone layer? So I read recently that Ozone Layer over Antarctica opens up every year still, we never actually closed it which I guess is myth? So how come the suns radiation doesn't simply obliterate Antarctica when the ozone layer opens up? Also, why is no one urged to close it, like wasn't their a big rallying cry in the science worlds among all nations a long long time ago, to stop certain sprays/chemicals being used to close the Ozone back up? It apparently worked? I read recently it actually never did close though, it closes and opens once a year.

Why are we not more worried about this?

Also, I am not a big sun person, but I do feel like the last couple of years the sun is "stronger" or quicker to burn people. Could this be a thinning of our atmospheric protection? What is the difference between that and the ozone layer? If I am correct, why are more people not worried about this? Or maybe people I know are just getting out more, I don't know, hence the increased frequency of burns. I am just curious if anyone has read anything on this.

@Shrek @lexluthermiester


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## AMF (Jul 10, 2022)

if u were to stand under the open zone ud burn way way way faster. yes solar activity is in in upward climb.  ..


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## Space Lynx (Jul 10, 2022)

AMF said:


> if u were to stand under the open zone ud burn way way way faster



Are there any efforts under way to try to close it up more permanently? How would we accomplish it? Why is no one worried about this?


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## AMF (Jul 10, 2022)

i dont think itcan be its amassive hole


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## Space Lynx (Jul 10, 2022)

AMF said:


> i dont think itcan be its amassive hole



It does close on its own naturally once a year, something I read said, "stuff from lower atmosphere fills in the hole" it's a cycle now... sorry not very scientific, but it does get closed every year... so we need to figure out that process, and see if it is something that can be more permanent. That would help the Antarctic stay frozen longer...


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## AMF (Jul 10, 2022)

natural cycle of the  earth  ice melting its gonna be gone at some  point anyways     artifical means of restoring ozone may do more harm than good


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 10, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> Can someone please explain to me the relationship of the sun and our ozone layer?


The OZone layer protects the biosphere from the harsh ionizing and high energy radiation emitted from the Sun. It's really that simple.


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## Blaeza (Jul 10, 2022)

Drone said:


> @xtreemchaos  nice shot there!
> 
> Short video by NAOJ


I see a pringle.


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## Wirko (Jul 10, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> It does close on its own naturally once a year, something I read said, "stuff from lower atmosphere fills in the hole" it's a cycle now... sorry not very scientific, but it does get closed every year... so we need to figure out that process, and see if it is something that can be more permanent. That would help the Antarctic stay frozen longer...


You may be taking the "hole" a bit too literally ... it's not a hole with sharply defined edges and zero ozone inside. Rather, it's a layer that becomes thinner and thicker again over time.

A lot has been done to restore the ozone layer. Chlorofluorocarbons for refrigeration and other uses were banned in the 90s all over the world. (Can you imagine this kind of worldwide agreement on anything relevant thirty years later?) Now they're decaying in the atmosphere, but it's a slow process that takes decades. Wikipedia has some data, see also linked sources #26 and #27.


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## Space Lynx (Jul 10, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> The OZone layer protects the biosphere from the harsh ionizing and high energy radiation emitted from the Sun. It's really that simple.



I feel like this is important as **** and NASA and other agencies should be looking at how to help it heal faster... why am I the only one alarmed by this?


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## AMF (Jul 10, 2022)

because theres nothing but research that isa being done  why worry if  u cant fix it.. all u can do is research


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## Shrek (Jul 10, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> Can someone please explain to me the relationship of the sun and our ozone layer? So I read recently that Ozone Layer over Antarctica opens up every year still, we never actually closed it which I guess is myth? So how come the suns radiation doesn't simply obliterate Antarctica when the ozone layer opens up? Also, why is no one urged to close it, like wasn't their a big rallying cry in the science worlds among all nations a long long time ago, to stop certain sprays/chemicals being used to close the Ozone back up? It apparently worked? I read recently it actually never did close though, it closes and opens once a year.
> 
> Why are we not more worried about this?
> 
> ...



What little I know from: Physics Concepts & Connections 5th edition, Art Hobson Chapter 9

Ozone blocks UV
Ozone is destroyed by hydrofluorocarbons (CFCs)
In 1987 47 nations forged The Ozone Treaty to phase out their use; however, they are long lived, but their levels are starting to come down.

The 1995 Nobel prize in chemistry was given to the people who figured out what was happening. The Nobel Committee commended them for having "contributed to our salvation from a global environmental problem that could have catastrophic consequences."


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## AMF (Jul 10, 2022)

if all man died on earth thousands of years from now hfc's produced by us will still be killing ozone



Wirko said:


> You may be taking the "hole" a bit too literally ... it's not a hole with sharply defined edges and zero ozone inside. Rather, it's a layer that becomes thinner and thicker again over time.
> 
> A lot has been done to restore the ozone layer. Chlorofluorocarbons for refrigeration and other uses were banned in the 90s all over the world. (Can you imagine this kind of worldwide agreement on anything relevant thirty years later?) Now they're decaying in the atmosphere, but it's a slow process that takes decades. Wikipedia has some data, see also linked sources #26 and #27.


agreed....yes andthey replaced it with butane and other additives which cause testicular cancer........cant win for losing


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## Shrek (Jul 10, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> It does close on its own naturally once a year, something I read said, "stuff from lower atmosphere fills in the hole" it's a cycle now... sorry not very scientific, but it does get closed every year... so we need to figure out that process, and see if it is something that can be more permanent. That would help the Antarctic stay frozen longer...



The ozone issue and global warming are separate issues



AMF said:


> if all man died on earth thousands of years from now hfc's produced by us will still be killing ozone



While long lived, they do not last that long when in the atmosphere.



AMF said:


> butane and other additives which cause testicular cancer



Do you have a reference for butane causing cancer?



AMF said:


> natural cycle of the  earth  ice melting its gonna be gone at some  point anyways     artifical means of restoring ozone may do more harm than good



The ozone issue and global warming are separate issues


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## MarsM4N (Jul 10, 2022)

What still amazes me is that the sun keeps burning for millions of years without running out of "fuel".

Guess there must me _*immense pressure*_ up there keeping the ball boiling, right?


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## Shrek (Jul 10, 2022)

Before E = m c^2, people wondered what could power the Sun

Chemical power was good for thousands of years
Gravitational energy for millions of years
but the geological record pointed to the Earth being billions of years old.

Only nuclear energy works over scales of billions of years.


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## AMF (Jul 10, 2022)

Shrek said:


> The ozone issue and global warming are separate issues
> 
> 
> 
> ...


its in the msds   material safty data sheet   my friend works for ac company  had to have his nuts  cut off  its a real thing mypoint being no matter what u do u make things just  as bad somewhere else .... do away with cars computers homes etc   live in caves  and bonk mrs over head with club days  are only way earth will be preserved


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## Shrek (Jul 10, 2022)

BUTANE | Occupational Safety and Health Administration (osha.gov)

*"Carcinogenic classifications: *Not listed"


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## AMF (Jul 10, 2022)

refrigerent as in ac for cars and home ac units  look that up r11   r22  and yes its mostly butane  has other additves


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## the54thvoid (Jul 10, 2022)

AMF said:


> because theres nothing but research that isa being done  why worry if  u cant fix it.. all u can do is research



I hate to extend this mild off topic discussion but the research that was done identified what was thinning the ozone layer, therefore something was done about it. The global mandate to reduce CFC's has helped to reduce the levels. Unfortunately, there are other gases being used that also damage it. And China (am I surprised?) was still a major source (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1193-4).


As for Antartica warming, nothing to do with CFC's but another couple of gases with scientifically verifiable properties (CO2, CH4). Funny, how people accept a man-made refrigerant and aerosol gas can affect the planet yet dismiss another gas for causing global warming when said gas is a known insulator of heat.



> What still amazes me is that the sun keeps burning for millions of years without running out of "fuel".
> 
> Guess there must me _*immense pressure*_ up there keeping the ball boiling, right?



As for this: technically, the Sun *is* using up its fuel, just at a pace we find difficult to understand with our tiny human minds. And it's not the pressure keeping it boiling, it's the gravity trying to collapse it which is keeping the core compressed and fusing atoms to create energy. Once the fuel begins to run lower, the fight against gravity will be lost and the core will shrink, letting the outer atmosphere of the sun expand (red giant). Then, once that atmosphere is spent, we'll have a little white dwarf. And this is all super-super simplified.


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## Shrek (Jul 10, 2022)

Sun is about halfway through its fuel (just in case that has not already been mentioned).


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## Wirko (Jul 10, 2022)

Shrek said:


> Before E = m c^2, people wondered what could power the Sun
> 
> Chemical power was good for thousands of years
> Gravitational energy for millions of years
> ...


It powers the Earth too, a little bit. A significant part of geothermal energy comes from radioactive decay (just decay, no nuclear reactions).


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## Shrek (Jul 10, 2022)

I'd go so far as to say quite a bit

Things get hotter as one goes down (25–30 °C/km) so we could generate a lot of power if we drilled down just a few kilometers.

But this is off topic, so I'll stop.


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## pavle (Jul 10, 2022)

A very good light it is indeed.


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## Space Lynx (Jul 10, 2022)

Thank you for the answers everyone, and in light of @the54thvoid we can go back to being more on-topic now. Much appreciated everyone, I will leave this thread for sun only stuff moving forward. My questions have been answered.


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## lexluthermiester (Jul 11, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> I feel like this is important as **** and NASA and other agencies should be looking at how to help it heal faster... why am I the only one alarmed by this?


It will regenerate naturally. It already has significantly in the last decade since bans on OZone depleting compounds began.


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## Wirko (Jul 11, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> Thank you for the answers everyone, and in light of @the54thvoid we can go back to being more on-topic now. Much appreciated everyone, I will leave this thread for sun only stuff moving forward. My questions have been answered.


I don't think this is a thread where we should never stray away from the topic. Earth is no more than 150 Tm away from Sun, after all, and they say there's some interaction between them.


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## Space Lynx (Sep 27, 2022)

Does anyone know if the sun can just pitter out without getting bigger? Or does the physics of how a sun works (aka in order for a sun to be a sun of our sun's size just cancel this possibility out?)

I am not wording this right... I guess is it possible for the 'innards' of our particular sun, to simply be miscalculated, and it simply fizzles out randomly one day even before its expected to age wise? Like a solar flare so big it messed up the spin of the other reactions taking place by giving the sun a jolt or slight spin it didn't have before, or simply a chemical imbalance occurs? Or is that chemical/atom balance is impossible to not be correct, otherwise it would be 'sperhical' in shape? 

I guess what I am trying to ask, physics, the way it works, tends to create a very strong stable foundation inherently in just the nature of its existence, or is it more unstable than I think?


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## qubit (Sep 27, 2022)

Scientists are as near to 100% sure it will become a red giant as is possible. Alas, it's still 5 billion years away, so none of us around today will get to see it. You really wouldn't want to though as it will mean the end of life on earth.

Would be funny if TPU were still around though.


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## Space Lynx (Sep 27, 2022)

qubit said:


> Scientists are as near to 100% sure it will become a red giant as is possible. Alas, it's still 5 billion years away, so none of us around today will get to see it. You really wouldn't want to though as it will mean the end of life on earth.



That's what I figured, I was just curious.


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## xtreemchaos (Sep 27, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> Does anyone know if the sun can just pitter out without getting bigger?


the truth is nobody knows. theirs a incredible amount of guess work that gos on about Sol, my imaging work brings me close to those who study sol thay use a few of my images in their work and i can never get a straight reply about anything and when i do within a year its changed. "scientists lovely with a bit of mint sauce"   .


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## Shrek (Sep 27, 2022)

qubit said:


> Scientists are as near to 100% sure it will become a red giant as is possible.



Indeed, two red giant swellings before leaving a carbon white dwarf.


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## qubit (Sep 28, 2022)

Shrek said:


> Indeed, two red giant swellings before leaving a carbon white dwarf.


I'd love to know how long it would take for that white dwarf remnant, presumably solid, to be cool enough to touch with a bare hand. I'll bet it's in the billions of years. There really is a stupendously huge amount of energy in the sun - and it's not even a large star. Mind boggles.

Of course there will be lots of other issues such as the radiation coming off it, possibly high gravity and likely other factors I haven't thought of preventing a future* human from actually doing this.

*If Putin hasn't wiped us all out with nukes in the next couple of weeks, of course.


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## Shrek (Sep 28, 2022)

Second (larger) red giant may vaporize the Earth.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 28, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> Does anyone know if the sun can just pitter out without getting bigger? Or does the physics of how a sun works (aka in order for a sun to be a sun of our sun's size just cancel this possibility out?)


The current model of stellar lifespan strongly suggests against it. However it is all just theory as of yet. However, it's a very strong theory as the knowledge we have thus far is fairly solid. The only question is how big it will actually get and where the orbiting planets will be located in their orbits when it expands. Not everyone agrees that the Sun will engulf the Earth or even get large enough to engulf Venus.


qubit said:


> Scientists are as near to 100% sure it will become a red giant as is possible.


Correction, the scientific community 100% agrees that the Sun will expand to a very large size. How large and to what extent is still being debated. The problem is that Sun's mass is not constant. It is loosing mass on a moment by moment basis. With every CME event the Sun expels a small, but not insignificant, amount of mass out into space that will not return. Then there is the question of the enormous amount of radiation, which is a form of matter that has mass, being emitted on a moment by moment basis.

So the question of whether the Sun will expand when it's fusion fuel supply is consumed is answered. But how big it will get will depend on the total mass of the Sun when it does run out of fuel.

EDIT: Corrections for proper terms.


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## Shrek (Sep 28, 2022)

It is the core that runs out of hydrogen when it is full helium; it then contracts and the Sun become shell burning (a hydrogen shell around the helium core burns) and it will actually die long before all the hydrogen is consumed. The helium core eventually lights up in a helium flash and for a bit it will be burning both helium and hydrogen. Larger stars don't have the helium flash.

Fascinating stuff and worth getting a book on.

The mechanism is counter intuitive since as the Sun runs out of fuel the core is compressed harder and the nuclear reactions run faster; we are used to things running slower as they run out of fuel.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 28, 2022)

Shrek said:


> It is the core that runs out of hydrogen when it is full helium; it then contracts and the Sun become shell burning (a hydrogen shell around the helium core burns) and it will actually die long before all the hydrogen is consumed. The helium core eventually lights up in a helium flash and for a bit it will be burning both helium and hydrogen. Larger stars don't have the helium flash.
> 
> Fascinating stuff and worth getting a book on.
> 
> The mechanism is counter intuitive since as the Sun runs out of fuel the core is compressed harder and the nuclear reactions run faster; we are used to things running slower as they run out of fuel.


It's not just the core. Convection is a thing and the core is always receiving a fresh supply of hydrogen. It's when the inner and outer core of a star run thin that the process of helium begins. Helium fusion is already taking place in the core of the Sun, but currently only in the depths of the inner core near the layers of heavy metals.


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## Shrek (Sep 28, 2022)

Good point, but the Sun's convective zone does not reach the core, there is a radiative zone between; but you are right, it is different for smaller Suns.

I believe that there is no significant Helium burning at the moment, but please correct me if I am wrong.

The Helium will light up explosively for the Sun (the flash), but not explosively for larger stars.

This is mainly from memory, but I hope I still recall correctly.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 28, 2022)

Shrek said:


> Good point, but the Sun's convective zone does not reach the core, there is a radiative zone between


While true in theory, thermal and fluid physics demand some exchange of matter takes place in all layers, so the refreshing of fuel supply is a thing that must be taking place.


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## Shrek (Sep 28, 2022)

Fair enough, but my point was that a lot of (most of) the hydrogen does not get burned in a Sun sized star; dwarf stars are another story although the Universe is not old enough for them to have run out of fuel yet.

Hydrogen floats, so one needs convection to pull it down.


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## lexluthermiester (Sep 28, 2022)

Shrek said:


> Fair enough, but my point was that a lot of (most of) the hydrogen does not get burned in a Sun sized star


That is part of what is still being(hotly) debated. The reality is, no one actually knows. We don't have models refined enough to accurately predict what percentage of hydrogen will be left over from our Sun. Computer simulations suggest the ratio of unfused fuel will be low, but those problems and equations are still being worked and explored.



Shrek said:


> Hydrogen floats, so one needs convection to pull it down.


While correct, please keep in mind that plamatic hydrogen under high compression behaves like a fluidic metal that has a greater density than helium and plamatic helium and thus helium rises and metallic hydrogen descends.


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## Shrek (Sep 28, 2022)

Then we can cheat! ;-)

Look at the population of Sun mass stars as there has been enough time in the Universe for such stars to have gone through their full life cycle.



lexluthermiester said:


> While correct, please keep in mind that plamatic hydrogen under high compression behaves like a fluidic metal that has a greater density than helium and plamatic helium and thus helium raises and metallic hydrogen descends.



You clearly know more than myself so I defer; didn't know plasmatic hydrogen was denser than plasmatic helium outside the core.


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## Bones (Oct 31, 2022)

Here ya go - A recent infrared photo of the sun that's unusual yet cool at the same time.
Yes - It's the real deal.



Here's a link to an article about it:

NASA captures photo of 'smiling' sun. It's not as cute as it looks. - The Washington Post


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## qubit (Oct 31, 2022)

@Bones You know what I don't get? Why do nearly all pictures show the sun as orange, like this false colour one, or yellow, when the sun actually looks white with a hint of yellow?

If you know the answer I'd love to know.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 31, 2022)

qubit said:


> If you know the answer I'd love to know.


False colour spectrum photos can be made any colour, but some hues have better contrast than others and red/orange have better contrast for some purposes.


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## Bones (Oct 31, 2022)

qubit said:


> @Bones You know what I don't get? Why do nearly all pictures show the sun as orange, like this false colour one, or yellow, when the sun actually looks white with a hint of yellow?
> 
> If you know the answer I'd love to know.


I believe Lex nailed it - you almost always see it in the spectrum of colors used here and it's probrably the best out of all to see it. 
Sometimes it's shown in a more reddish color but this is what's most commonly seen that I know of.


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## Wirko (Oct 31, 2022)

qubit said:


> @Bones You know what I don't get? Why do nearly all pictures show the sun as orange, like this false colour one, or yellow, when the sun actually looks white with a hint of yellow?
> 
> If you know the answer I'd love to know.


It's not just false colour photographs. Wherever the sun appears in an illustration or a drawing, or as a symbol, it's almost always yellow or orange. In the Japanese flag it's red.

Explanation 1. I look at the sun and it looks yellow or pinkish orange or red or dark red. Well, that's when I actually _can _look into the sun at least for a split second, which means when it's low on the horizon.
Explanation 2. Even at noon, the sun is white on blue sky background, which possibly makes it appear yellow or orange. Like those grey strawberries.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 31, 2022)

Wirko said:


> It's not just false colour photographs. Wherever the sun appears in an illustration or a drawing, or as a symbol, it's almost always yellow or orange. In the Japanese flag it's red.
> 
> Explanation 1. I look at the sun and it looks yellow or pinkish orange or red or dark red. Well, that's when I actually _can _look into the sun at least for a split second, which means when it's low on the horizon.
> Explanation 2. Even at noon, the sun is white on blue sky background, which possibly makes it appear yellow or orange. Like those grey strawberries.


You seem to be missing the point of the photo's. They're not taken in visible light. They're in XRays and high frequency UV.


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## Steevo (Oct 31, 2022)

Plus some radiance cause its really hot too.


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## xtreemchaos (Oct 31, 2022)

qubit said:


> sun actually looks white with a hint of yellow?


your quite right but this is what sol looks like through my solar scope and cam, its as near as one can get from earth but dimmed by a quark HA filter to show detail.
 and this is the setup used to take said pics just incase anyones wondering.


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## qubit (Nov 1, 2022)

@xtreemchaos Nah, ya didn't take those pictures, as good as they look. See, the brain dead conspiracy theorist in me demands to know where the stars are in the blackness of space. I win!


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## xtreemchaos (Nov 1, 2022)

qubit said:


> stars are in the blackness of space.


orrh you got me next time ill photoshop them in   . heres my flicker page charl chaos | Flickr and here  Solar Imaging Showcase 2017 - Imaging - Solar - Stargazers Lounge and compaire with some of my solar imaging buddys and just in case ya want to see some more of my solar system work without stars in the background  .


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 1, 2022)

xtreemchaos said:


> your quite right but this is what sol looks like through my solar scope and cam, its as near as one can get from earth but dimmed by a quark HA filter to show detail.
> View attachment 268037View attachment 268039View attachment 268040View attachment 268041 and this is the setup used to take said pics just incase anyones wondering.


Nice setup! And your photo's are a perfect example of the kind of actual imagery that is being done. They are then given false color to highlight various details in the images.


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## xtreemchaos (Nov 1, 2022)

thanks bud, yes i dont like false colour at all mate, i do capture with a colour cam but in processing remove all colour before staxing the frames, the Quark HA filter makes a red image but its nice for visual its too over powering in a image, but for proms i sometimes add a bit of colour just to make the proms stand out if thay are very faint. i havnt done much imaging this year with my health being up and down but hoping to get some done soon "fingers crossed". charl.


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## Space Lynx (Nov 3, 2022)

Sorry if this has already been asked, my head hurts and I am quite tired. I was just thinking tonight, as the sun gets bigger, would it be possible to move to Mars gradually over the next 500k years, and then on that same note, from Mars to the moon Titan? Or when the sun expands, does it happen so fast, that such a gradual move over the eons won't be possible? It seems to me that Titan, once Earth is absorbed by the sun, may be perfect conditions under the new dimmer sun for another few billion years?


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 3, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> I was just thinking tonight, as the sun gets bigger


The Sun isn't getting bigger. It is getting smaller over time as it looses mass due to emissions and CME's.


CallandorWoT said:


> Or when the sun expands, does it happen so fast, that such a gradual move over the eons won't be possible?


You're talking about the end of the fusion phase of the Sun when it expands into a red giant.


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## xtreemchaos (Nov 3, 2022)

I'm going to be honest here, by the time sol expands we humans will have long gone, most likely most if not all life on earth will not exist "think Venus", we are taking 4 billion years. as for moving to mars we have great difficulty living at extremes on our own planet we are not going to live on Mars Longterm its far too hostile for life no matter what Elon says yes, we will visit people will die and that will be the end of that. sorry to be neg believe it or not i am a optimist.


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## Space Lynx (Nov 3, 2022)

xtreemchaos said:


> I'm going to be honest here, by the time sol expands we humans will have long gone, most likely most if not all life on earth will not exist "think Venus", we are taking 4 billion years. as for moving to mars we have great difficulty living at extremes on our own planet we are not going to live on Mars Longterm its far too hostile for life no matter what Elon says yes, we will visit people will die and that will be the end of that. sorry to be neg believe it or not i am a optimist.



humans or no humans, you can not deny that evidence of life has existed for over a billion years on our planet, 2.5 billion if i remember correctly. therefore, logic dictates even if we aren't around then, something will be, therefore, making the thought process still a valid contemplation


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## xtreemchaos (Nov 3, 2022)

good thinking but there's never been a species like human's hell bent on destroying them self's and everything around them before. im glad im a cat  .


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## Space Lynx (Nov 3, 2022)

xtreemchaos said:


> good thinking but there's never been a species like human's hell bent on destroying them self's and everything around them before. im glad im a cat  .



humans aren't that powerful, I do believe Earth would heal and many species would survive even a nuclear winter. it would take several hundred years, perhaps even a few tens of thousands, but other species would begin to develop consciousness at some point. that is the beauty of the Cosmos, and of the Earth, it will be here long after us, as it was long before us.


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## xtreemchaos (Nov 3, 2022)

I'm talking about something much worse than a nuke winter the runaway greenhouse effect which some scientists are saying may have already started.


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## qubit (Nov 3, 2022)

xtreemchaos said:


> good thinking but there's never been a species like human's hell bent on destroying them self's and everything around them before. im glad im a cat  .


Catz rulez.


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## xtreemchaos (Nov 3, 2022)

bud, ive told him to stop going on the interweb but he don't take any notice, ill have to restrict his dreames  .


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## Space Lynx (Nov 9, 2022)

I still don't fully understand the concept of the suns energy still.

So let's fast forward, a suns energy, emitting rays of light, does it just fade into nothing or does it always exist? So if I use the classical example of if I had A telescope big enough and hyptothetically could travel infinite space, I could always find the rays of light the sun emitted at some point? So does therefore everything everywhere is already eternal in nature? Some energy and light is always lost though? But is that energy lost forever? Or does it just float around in outer space for all eternity?

I don't know how to word what I am trying to ask. I think I may have just confused myself, so yes, nevermind I suppose.

edit:  a flashlight can only emit so far, so the suns rays only go so far in billion trillion lightyears too... then it fades, but where does that energy go? is some of it lost? what happens to a light from a flashlight? does the light particles just fade into nothing? or are they still something? this is probably very basic to most people, I just don't get it.


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## xtreemchaos (Nov 9, 2022)

energy never dies it just changes state according to science, but my view is science is a fickled thing since science turned into a religion full of fundamentalism and back scratching it just doesn't have the same gusto for me. as for light it just keeps traveling in space "we think" or until it hits something and is absorbed as energy. don't get me wrong I'm all for science it just doesn't answer everything for me  .


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 9, 2022)

CallandorWoT said:


> I still don't fully understand the concept of the suns energy still.
> 
> So let's fast forward, a suns energy, emitting rays of light, does it just fade into nothing or does it always exist? So if I use the classical example of if I had A telescope big enough and hyptothetically could travel infinite space, I could always find the rays of light the sun emitted at some point? So does therefore everything everywhere is already eternal in nature? Some energy and light is always lost though? But is that energy lost forever? Or does it just float around in outer space for all eternity?
> 
> ...


You've touched on some interesting points and I'm going to come back to them later tonight. Kinda busy right now.

Ok, here we go.


CallandorWoT said:


> I still don't fully understand the concept of the suns energy still.


Nuclear Fusion. This involves Hydrogen atoms being smashed together to form Helium, Helium & Hydrogen atoms being smashed together to form Lithium and so on. In the core of the Sun the temperature is 10million degrees+ and with all the pressure and gravity, fusion takes place. The fusion reactions themselves add to the heat and electromagnetic radiation already present. This is how the fusion phase of the Sun started 4.5Billion years ago. It's a lot of energy being released. Matter is so densely packed in that energy, heat and light takes 40,000 to 50,000 years bouncing around inside to reach the surface of the Sun then shoot out into the Universe in all directions.



CallandorWoT said:


> So let's fast forward, a suns energy, emitting rays of light, does it just fade into nothing or does it always exist?


That depends on the emission in question.
Neutrinos, one of the more exotic forms of matter created in a fusion reaction, do not interact with baryonic matter and just pass through everything without slowing down or interacting with gravity much. Harmless.

Photons(which includes visible light) proceed until they interact with something. Mostly harmless.

Ionic radiation(atoms without a Neutron or Electron) do much the same but interact differently. Very dangerous.

Neutron radiation(free Neutrons not a part of an atom) general only stop in dense matter, such as lead. Also very dangerous.

There are more, but you get the idea. The Sun emits all of these on a constant basis. Some of those emissions will be stopped by entropy as they have a relatively large mass(but that takes hundreds of trillions of years). Neutrinos never stop unless they directly cross paths(read directly contact) a Black Hole object. Extremely rare. Photons never stop until they cross paths with any baryonic matter(dust, asteroids, planets, other stars, etc). More common but still very rare relatively speaking. Ionic radiation and Neutron radiation are the types that will slow down and lose energy as they interact with matter and gravity wells.



CallandorWoT said:


> So if I use the classical example of if I had A telescope big enough and hyptothetically could travel infinite space, I could always find the rays of light the sun emitted at some point?


No. The Sun, as a star, has only existed for approx 4.5 to 5 billion years. So if you could track emissions from the Sun, you would only reach that distance in light years(4.5 to 5 billion light years) and have emissions to observe. Otherwise, you would see nothing but the emissions from the rest of the MilkyWay galaxy.



CallandorWoT said:


> So does therefore everything everywhere is already eternal in nature?


No. There are finite cycle spans for all matter/energy functions that exist in the Universe. Some of them are very short, such as the lifespan of a common house fly(measured in days), and some of them are VERY long, such as the nominal fusion cycle of a Red Dwarf star(measured in tens of trillions of years). However, everything in the Universe has a cycle, none of them are infinite, as we currently understand physics.



CallandorWoT said:


> Some energy and light is always lost though? But is that energy lost forever? Or does it just float around in outer space for all eternity?


It is always transformed, not lost. Science currently has no model to predict how long the cyclical patterns of the Universe will last, though the idea is being worked on. We are limited by the technology of our time, an ever present fact that drives us scientists bonkers ALOT!



CallandorWoT said:


> I don't know how to word what I am trying to ask. I think I may have just confused myself, so yes, nevermind I suppose.


Not at all. You are someone who ponders the Universe and these are natural questions to be asking. You remind me of myself in years past.



CallandorWoT said:


> edit: a flashlight can only emit so far, so the suns rays only go so far in billion trillion lightyears too... then it fades, but where does that energy go?


OOoo! Excellent thought experiment! Ok. The photons from flash light are just as strong as the photons from the Sun. The reason a flash light looses it's apparent brightness over distance is because of the intensity of the emissions. A flash light emits FAR fewer photons at any one moment then that of the Sun. And by design, a flashlight spreads it's light out in an arc to provide more illumination for the immediate area. Go 50 miles away and if you can still see the flashlight, it's very dim. This is because most of the photons have either spread out over the distance or have interacted with the atoms of the atmosphere and have been scattered. A laser's light can travel farther because it's photons more focused in a narrow beam. But again, in an atmosphere, the further you go, the more dim that laser light will be. In the vacuum of space where no atmospheric interaction takes place, photons will continue on their way in a more or less straight line(gravity still affects the trajectory of light photons) until it hits and object. Yet the farther you go, the more sensitive you observation equipment will need to be to observe said flashlight. This is because of the light still spreading out in the designed arc. And even though space is mostly a vacuum, it is not empty. There are still trace amounts of gas and dust floating around between the planets, the start and even between galaxies. So the farther you go away from that flashlight, the unlikely you are to interact with it's very much of it's light emissions. Go 25% of a year away and it is unlikely you will observe more that a dozen photons that originated from the flashlight.



CallandorWoT said:


> this is probably very basic to most people, I just don't get it.


Not really. You are touching on some advanced and complex physics. You are not only asking the right questions, but you are asking them generally in the right order. Based in this, I would say you have a mind for critical thinking and science. If you're not already, you might want to give thought into a higher education focused on a field of science that interests you. I urge you to explore that aspect of yourself.


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## Wirko (Nov 10, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> Nuclear Fusion. This involves Hydrogen atoms being smashed together to form Helium, Helium & Hydrogen atoms being smashed together to form Lithium and so on. In the core of the Sun the temperature is 10million degrees+ and with all the pressure and gravity, fusion takes place. The fusion reactions themselves add to the heat and electromagnetic radiation already present. This is how the fusion phase of the Sun started 4.5Billion years ago. It's a lot of energy being released. Matter is so densely packed in that energy, heat and light takes 40,000 to 50,000 years bouncing around inside to reach the surface of the Sun then shoot out into the Universe in all directions.


Maybe this is the right place to add something. Heat is not just infrared radiation as people commonly think. Heat is any radiation that matter can absorb and, as a result, heat up. In a microwave oven, it's microwaves at 2450 MHz. That frequency was not chosen because it has some special effect on water molecules, like resonance; it was an unoccupied range of frequencies that doesn't interfere with other uses. On Earth, about half of the heat coming from the Sun is actually visible light. In a silicon wafer lithography machine, DUV or EUV light hits the photomask and heats it up (a lot because it all takes place in a vacuum, and that's a big problem).


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 11, 2022)

Wirko said:


> Maybe this is the right place to add something. Heat is not just infrared radiation as people commonly think. Heat is any radiation that matter can absorb and, as a result, heat up. In a microwave oven, it's microwaves at 2450 MHz. That frequency was not chosen because it has some special effect on water molecules, like resonance; it was an unoccupied range of frequencies that doesn't interfere with other uses. On Earth, about half of the heat coming from the Sun is actually visible light. In a silicon wafer lithography machine, DUV or EUV light hits the photomask and heats it up (a lot because it all takes place in a vacuum, and that's a big problem).


You talking about kinetic energy. CallandorWot was talking about light particles(Photons) and other emissions from the Sun.


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## Wirko (Nov 11, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> You talking about kinetic energy. CallandorWot was talking about light particles(Photons) and other emissions from the Sun.


Is it incorrect to call radiation "heat", and only correct to call it "heat transfer"? I need to consult some university lectures. Wikipedia's definitions are inconsistent but maybe it just reflects the actual use of terms by physicists.


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## xtreemchaos (Nov 11, 2022)

talking about Sol there's a lovely group of sun spots I've been trying to catch but with no luck with the darn Perma cloud here in Miedrim.
PICs from soho nascom. white light view.




and this is from GONG Ha view.


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## lexluthermiester (Nov 11, 2022)

Wirko said:


> Is it incorrect to call radiation "heat", and only correct to call it "heat transfer"?


That depends on the context in use. Infrared wavelengths are radiative "heat". Kinetic heat is atomic excitation. They can be interchangeable in a general discussion but are two completely different physics functions.


Wirko said:


> I need to consult some university lectures. Wikipedia's definitions are inconsistent but maybe it just reflects the actual use of terms by physicists.


Again, it depends on the context of use and what is being discussed. It can also depend on the people in the discussion.

In the context of this discussion, the "heat" we get from the Sun is radiative but is converted to kinetic heat when that radiation interacts with the mass of the Earth. The warmth we feel when we hold out our hand in sunlight is exactly that, the radiative output of the Sun interacting with our skin and being converted into kinetic heat. It's not actually the "heat" we can feel until it is converted by energy transfer.

Does that make sense?


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