Probe's close-up of Sun eruption (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Japanese scientists have expressed their delight at the performance of the Hinode spacecraft which was sent into orbit in September to study the Sun.

The probe has returned remarkable close-up images of solar features that researchers hope will yield valuable new insights into the star's activity.

Hinode's primary goal is to investigate solar flares, colossal explosions that occur in the Sun's atmosphere.

The platform was built with the assistance of UK/US research teams.

The new pictures, which have been coloured and turned into movies, show the behaviour of sunspots, which are slightly cooler areas on the star's surface and marked by intense magnetic activity.
***
more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6195078.stm

Press release (with pix and video): http://solar-b.nao.ac.jp/news_e/20061127_press_e/

[whistle]

1. The middle photo looks like boiling taffy for God!

[Poll_Blind]

2. In the middle photo: Those bubbles are called Solar convection cells...

...and they're each about the size of Spain. Just to give a sense of scale.

PB

[YankeyMCC]

3. The Eye!

:)

Very cool! Well relatively speaking I guess. ;)

Seriously though it's always fun to see such dramatic results from scientific efforts and heartening in that this is the sort of thing that might continue to inspire young people to pursue scientific exploration.

[Tesha]

4. Didn't we *ALREADY* have that image???

[mainegreen]

5. Sweeeet!

:thumbsup: