Astronomy Picture of the Day 2-23-03

NASA ^ | 2-23-03 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2003 February 23

A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence
Credit: SOHO Consortium, EIT, ESA, NASA

Explanation: A huge eruptive prominence is seen moving out from our Sun in this condensed half-hour time-lapse sequence. Ten Earths could easily fit in the "claw" of this seemingly solar monster. This large prominence, though, is significant not only for its size, but its shape. The twisted figure eight shape indicates that a complex magnetic field threads through the emerging solar particles. Recent evidence of differential rotation inside the Sun might help account for the surface explosion. The sequence was taken early in the year 2000 by the Sun-orbiting SOHO satellite. Although large prominences and energetic Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are relatively rare, they are occurred more frequently near Solar Maximum, the time of peak sunspot and solar activity in the eleven-year solar cycle.

[petuniasevan]

Sorry I'm so late posting this. I was out all day helping poorman with buying a boat.

Solar conditions change all the time. You can monitor solar activity (perhaps to predict auroras) at this excellent website:

SpaceWeather.com

Here's a goody from that page:

Using a 10" telescope, Eric Ng of Hong Kong took these two pictures of Jupiter on Feb. 9th . "I added red dots on the image to produce a 3D effect," says Eric. "Just sit 1 or 2 feet in front of your computer and adjust your eyes until the two red dots merge. You will see three Jupiters and the middle one is 3D." It really works!

[petuniasevan]

[MeekOneGOP]

Wow ! What an incredible picture. Amazing ...

Thanks.

[firewalk]

Thank you for the ping & for taking the time to put this thread up

[MozartLover]

This is amazing. Thank you!

[fnord]

I can never get those things to work, nor those hidden pictures in the funny pages.

[petuniasevan]

Here's how I taught poorman to "read" 3d stereograms:

I painted two white dots on a windowpane, then had him stand close to the window and look through it at the trees outside. I had him move forward and back until the white dots seemed to merge into a third, center dot.

That's the secret. You have to look THROUGH this image, as if you were focusing on a more distant object.

[sistergoldenhair]

Thanks for posting APOD.
I always learn something new.

[RightWhale]

That works well. Way better than red/green stereo. Good for getting images on the proper sides so it isn't necessary to cross the eyes.

[BradyLS]

I always forget. Is Jupiter's "eye" supposed to be above or below the planet's equator? I know that simple telescopes flip the focused image so that the true "top" of the image is really at the bottom.

[petuniasevan]

The Great Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the southern hemisphere. So yes, this image is oriented "upside down" to our frame of reference.

[Joan912]

Wow! What an unbelievable picture of the sun!