Since we are at, or almost at solar maximum I decided to photograph the Sun today. There are more sunspots on the surface of the Sun than I have ever seen. I numbered them as best I could by comparing my photo to a current one taken by NASA. If you want to know how sunspots are numbered, check out Spaceweather.com for a detailed explanation. Note: I really wanted to emphasize the sunspots, so my photo of the Sun may look a bit funky as I maximized "Unsharp Mask"-Radius and Factor in Affinity.
Sunspots are areas that are cooler than the surrounding surface due to changes in the strong magnetic field as it comes to the surface, thus the spots are darker in color. Sunspots are still hot, hot, hot at 6500F. Areas around sunspot groups can release solar flares of tremendous amounts of radiation.
Currently, there are multiple jets of plasma being released from Sunspot group 3638-47. The Sun's surface is so dynamic that changes occur constantly as one sunspot group may die back and another may form.
1 comment:
Very cool!
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