Label: Sun
February 23, 2012
Cool Video: Solar Twisters
The latest period of heavy solar flares erupting on the surface of the sun continues (as do the beautiful auroras that they create for us to see here on Earth).
Solar flares are actually great bursts of superheated plasma. There is a NASA satellite that can capture amazingly detailed images of the sun’s surface, and scientists pieced together photographs snapped every five minutes to create this amazing video of recent solar activity.
Each of the loops of plasma that you see in this video is two to three times larger than Earth. What an amazing sight!
You can see more photographs and learn more in Seymour Simon’s book, THE SUN.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
January 25, 2012
Writing Wednesday: The Sun is Waking Up
Welcome to Writing Wednesday! Every Wednesday you can publish your own creative writing on the Seymour Science blog.
Writing Wednesday has two simple rules:
- Give us the best you’ve got in 5 minutes. That’s right - five minutes of creative writing. Think of it as a word extravaganza to warm up your brain for the rest of the day!
- Tell us your first name, the name of your school, and how old you are.
Ready? Let’s go!
As a scientist wrote yesterday, "THE SUN IS WAKING UP." The sun goes through regular cycles, and we have entered a period of high solar activity. Huge solar storms have been sweeping the surface of the sun for the past week, sending bursts of geomagnetic radiation called "solar flares" toward Earth. When this radiation hits Earth’s magnetic field, it causes bursts of light that we call the Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights. Sometimes they look like ghostly fingers in the sky; sometimes they look like huge explosions of colored lights.
Here is a photograph of the Northern Lights as seen in Finland this week. Take five minutes and write a list of five words to describe this nighttime sight. Enter your writing by clicking on the yellow "Comments" at the bottom of this blog post.
Happy writing!
Photo: Arnar Bergur Guðjónsson
Posted by: Liz Nealon
August 3, 2010
Video of the Solar Eruption
We have a link to a 7-second video, recorded by extreme UV cameras onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. It shows an enormous magnetic filament breaking away from the sun. Some of this breakaway material is now en route to Earth in the form of a coronal mass ejection (CME). Click on this link to view.
As we noted yesterday, this "solar wind" may result in auroras, or an opportunity to view the Northern Lights from higher latitudes. Be on the lookout starting early tomorrow morning!
The Sun has constant nuclear explosions at its core, underneath the sea of boiling gases that form its surface. You can read more about the star at the center of our solar system in my book of the same name.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
