PICK OF THE WEEK
Pick of The Week
A Fire-Breathing Dragon (June 5, 2002)
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Once in a great while, looking at images of the Sun can be a little
like lying on your back and looking at shapes of clouds or seeing a
figure in the carpet. For several days this week the darker areas in
the mid-corona seemed to take a distinct pattern-that of a dragon.
Most of this seems to consist of a long filament above the solar
surface. With some image editing the pattern is here made clearer
with an overlay of color so that others can see it as well. You can
play the movie to watch the overlay fade in and out. The image (EIT 195 angstrom) shows the extreme ultraviolet emission from ionized iron in the Sun's corona heated to a million degrees C. SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display. If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov. |
