Surface Of The Sun PHOTO: Picture Reveals Star In Stunning Detail

What does the surface of the Sun look like?

An image taken by the Swedish Solar Telescope in September 2007 provides one of the more detailed and revealing portraits of the solar system's central star.

The red granules (reminiscent of pomegranate seeds to some) are "hot, rising columns of plasma edged by dark lanes of cooler, descending plasma," APOD explains. The white dots are locales that have concentrated magnetic fields, which appear so bright because of strong magnetic pressure that "opens a window to hotter deeper layers below the photosphere," says APOD.

See the image of the surface of the Sun below, then see more incredible space pictures, including including gorgeous photos of Mars, NASA's most striking photos of stars, pictures of Earth tweeted from space by astronauts in orbit, and images from NASA's star-mapping spacecraft.

For a sense of scale, note that the white line in the bottom left h hand corner of the image represents 5000 kilometers.

Comments

[leonce]

07:49 AM on 04/25/2010

He told me to be very careful before they kill me again for the time is near.

Those or the so call scientists have not yet seen anything of the nature.

Untill when all automatics things get to stop finally.

That will be the time of africanism/spiritual moment all over the world.

I need the prophet book from the white house but I know how it is going to come to me.

If they want to know about the nature, they need my body study because I am tensforming so faste up to the age.

[leonce]

07:47 AM on 04/25/2010

He told me to be very careful before they kill me again for the time is near.

Those or the so call scientists have not yet seen anything of the nature.

Untill when all automatics things get to stop finally.

That will be the time of africanism/spiritual moment all over the world.

I need the prophet book from the white house but I know how it is going to come to me.

If they want to know more about the nature, they need my body study because I am transforming so faste up to the age.

[ilovecandy]

04:12 PM on 04/21/2010

It looks alive.

[kwoodberryesq]

03:48 PM on 04/21/2010

Okay I see the male symbol now... and if you will look just to the left edge of the white bar, you will see a bee that caught in the lens...

[CatHead]

02:40 PM on 04/21/2010

...and if you look carefully you can see the monolith...

[Brandon Johnson]

02:25 PM on 04/21/2010

In the middle bottom of the pic, is that a male symbol?

[TakeSake]

02:33 PM on 04/21/2010

Maybe it's a symbol for The Who!

[GoogleMaster]

02:37 PM on 04/21/2010

I'm having a hard time finding the middle of the Sun.
Perhaps it has no middle; like our universe (of which we are the center of)

[leonce]

09:49 AM on 04/25/2010

Pa-lin, I hoped you are part of the 777777 spiritual members who will carry on Jah/God mission on earth when the time come.

[taratata2009]

02:03 PM on 04/21/2010

Pa-lin says she sees a silhouette of Jesus inside this photo.

[olivia]

02:18 PM on 04/21/2010

As long as she didn't see $$$$$, which would mean she'd go right there.

[taratata2009]

03:14 PM on 04/21/2010

I betcha she would go. After lots of moose hunting, she now goes money hunting.

[Onyx7052]

02:32 PM on 04/21/2010

Well i dont see the silhouette of Jesus, but there is a male symbol bottom center of the picture.

[GravitonX]

02:03 PM on 04/21/2010

At least, they should describe what we are looking at. HP's been known to (accidentally) swap photos in the past. Looks like organ tissue...skin cells....maybe blood.

[sgmorr]

02:41 PM on 04/21/2010

Here's the link to Astronomy Picture of the Day.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100416.html

They don't lie.

[hagagaga]

01:29 PM on 04/21/2010

wow

[GoogleMaster]

01:12 PM on 04/21/2010

What they don't tell you is, at the very core the Sun is twelve degrees. Who would have thunk.

[ZenSufi]

01:24 PM on 04/21/2010

..and sex degrees of Kevin Bacon. Ba da bump.

[mero909]

03:26 PM on 04/21/2010

chilly

[thepheonix]

01:07 PM on 04/21/2010

Just think. If the Earth fell into the sun. It would just be a drop!

[ThomasPaineWeNeedYou]

12:58 PM on 04/21/2010

One million earths will fit into the sun, fifty thousand into Jupiter.
Our universe is huge and amazing and we are part of it no matter how small.

[chendri887]

01:03 PM on 04/21/2010

Truly said in the spirit of Thomas Paine! I agree!

[philko]

01:40 PM on 04/21/2010

Tom Paine? Sounded like Horton the Elephant to me.

[ThomasPaineWeNeedYou]

02:22 PM on 04/21/2010

Thanks and fanned.

[kburlz]

12:46 PM on 04/21/2010

Where is the pic from the fornt page?

[chendri887]

12:45 PM on 04/21/2010

A ball of gas floating in space. Truly mind-boggling! Beautiful picture.

[mograph]

12:37 PM on 04/21/2010

My eyes! My eyes! Aaahh!

[jl4141]

12:45 PM on 04/21/2010

Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun. But Mama, that's where the fun is!

[TakeSake]

12:52 PM on 04/21/2010

Set the controls of the Curly-Whirley for the heart of the sun.