Sunny Sun Flower (June 13, 2008)

Hi-res TIF image (5.7M)

This whimsical illustration of a sun flower was composed solely of images from the STEREO spacecraft taken on June 6, 2008. It serves to reinforce the fact that STEREO (like SOHO) observes the Sun in four different wavelengths of ultraviolet light and color codes each of these so that scientists and others can immediately know which wavelength was used to take the image. The orange center is from the EUV 304 Ångstrom wavelength; blue is from EUV 171 Å; green is from EUV 195 Å; and yellow is from EUV 284 Å. Each image captures different features at different temperatures and distances above the sun's surface. The reddish background in the "sun" in the upper right is from STEREO's COR2 coronagraph, an instrument that blocks out the sun to reveal faint features in the sun's corona as seen in visible light. There is some logic to this image: the sun is the driving force of all living things on Earth, including flowers!

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.