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Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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The Sun, in All Its Glory
March 22, 2007 2:19 PM
The Sun does not simply shine. It roils, and burns, and sends out bursts of light and magnetism and 
charged particles.
A Japanese spacecraft called Hinode has now recorded the Sun's restlessness in more detail than ever before, and the video is--well, take a look HERE.
NASA, which helped out in the planning, is thrilled. "For the first time, we are now able to make out tiny granules of hot gas that rise and fall in the sun's magnetized atmosphere," said Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division, in an agency statement.
There's no one finding from the Hinode mission--it's the kind of thing that will have scientists filling in details and reworking theories. More background from NASA is HERE, and a wire story is HERE.
In the meantime, enjoy the pictures. You don't need to shield your eyes to see them.
March 22, 2007 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (2)
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Absolutely fascinating! Once again, many thanks for the truly stunning video clips, Ned! They clearly show the turbulence beneath the seemingly-placid surface of the sun.
Posted by: chuck | Mar 22, 2007 2:48:46 PM
Beautiful, but what's the scale and time? Are these flares ascending tens of miles, or thousands? Is this "normal" time, or time lapse? Curious people want to know.
Posted by: Mike Maxwell | Mar 23, 2007 9:19:24 PM
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