Don't panic, the Sun has not gone wild.
But this wild-looking portrait of the nearest star to planet Earth
was made on March 30th by the
recently launched
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
Shown in
false-color, the composite view covers
extreme ultraviolet wavelengths and traces
hot plasma at
temperatures approaching 1 million
kelvins.
At full resolution, SDO image data is intended to explore
solar activity in unprecedented detail.
In fact, SDO will send 1.5 terabytes of data back each day,
equivalent to a daily download of about half a million MP3 songs.
New SDO data releases include a
high-resolution movie
of the large, eruptive prominence seen along the solar
limb at the upper left.
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