It was a quiet day on the
Sun. The
above image shows, however, that even during off days the
Sun's surface is a busy place. Shown in
ultraviolet light, the relatively cool dark regions have temperatures of thousands of degrees
Celsius.
Large sunspot group AR 9169 is visible as the bright area near the horizon. The
bright glowing gas flowing around the
sunspots has a temperature of over one million degrees
Celsius. The reason for the high temperatures is
unknown but thought to be related to the rapidly changing
magnetic field loops that channel solar plasma.
Sunspot group AR 9169 moved across the
Sun during 2000 September and decayed in a few weeks. Nemiroff, Robert. "APOD: 2004 October 10 - Sunspot Loops in Ultravoilet." Astronomy Picture of the Day. Ed. Jerry Bonnell. 10 Oct. 2004. NASA. 19 Feb. 2009
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap041010.html?>.
This picture is astonishing to look at. I have never seen more of a pretty picture in my life. This picture has a lot of symbolic meaning to me. The fire almost reminds me of what I imagine as Hell looking like. The flames would consume you and you would burn forever. This picture also reminds me of destruction. All the forest fires the people out in California have been having. The fires have not only been damaging people's house but the forest and it is destroying a lot of animals environments. This picture almost reminds me the symbol of power. Fire can have a lot of strength and can keep you warm when nothing else can, kind of like the sun.
