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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.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

The Sun's Surface in 3D

Explanation: How smooth is the Sun? The new Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope , deployed in the Canary Islands only last year, allows imaging of objects less than 100-km across on the Sun's surface . When pointed toward the Sun's edge , surface objects now begin to block each other, indicating true three- dimensional information. Close inspection of the image reveals much vertical information, including spectacular light-bridges rising nearly 500-km above the floor of sunspots near the top of the image. Also visible in the above false-color image are hundreds of bubbling granules , each about 1000-km across, and small bright regions known as faculas .

Date June 24, 2003
Credit Credit: G. Scharmer ( ISP , RSAS ) et al., Lockheed-Martin Solar & Astrophysics Lab.
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.