The Sun As You've Never Seen It...

[spindrift]

Nasa has sent up a new satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, to study the sun as never before.

The above picture shows a huge solar flare. Solar flares affect the earth's weather patterns.

For more information and photos access this link ~

www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1267943/Nasa-Solar-Dynamics-Observatory-shows-Sun-youve-seen-it.html



I'm putting up this extra picture in case you don't access the link. It's spectacular, isn't it?

[bixaorellana]

Oh my gosh ~~ I'm envisioning a whole room full of NASA scientists going "Oooooooooo!"

That's incredibly gorgeous and interesting.

And just think -- the general public can look forward to some really cool screensavers really soon. ;D

[spindrift]

It's wonderful. The DSO satellite was launched last February.

[Deleted]

Wow. That's an amazing shot of the sun! I hope it never decides to hurtle towards Earth...

[spindrift]

I can't understand why the sun doesn't burn itself out. Its combustion seems to be limitless but I know this isn't really so. It looks so frightening.

[bixaorellana]

The Sun is about 4.5 billion years old. Since its birth it has used up about half of the hydrogen in its core. It will continue to radiate 'peacefully' for another 5 billion years or so (although its luminosity will approximately double in that time). But eventually it will run out of hydrogen fuel. It will then be forced into radical changes which, though commonplace by stellar standards, will result in the total destruction of the Earth.
from: www.funtrivia.com/

The Sun is basically a thermonuclear bomb with a built-in thermostat. Just as in a hydrogen bomb, hydrogen atoms are fusing together to make helium atoms and this nuclear reaction produces heat (along with the light that we see). If the reactions go on too fast, the Sun expands slightly (just like a balloon expands when you heat up the air in it). This slows down the reactions and then the Sun cools and contracts. If it contracts too much, the nuclear reactions speed up, and then the Sun heats up and expands again. So the Sun stays at the same temperature, burning its nuclear fuel at a steady rate. At the rate it is going, we have about 4 billion years left until the Sun burns out.
from: image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/asun.html

[Deleted]

The sun is scary looking.

4 billion years left before it blows itself up? I can live with that.

[spindrift]

I suppose I have no real conception of how big it is....I know it's huge.