Solstice Sun In Soft X-rays
Explanation:
The solstice occurs today at 8:56 PM Eastern Standard Time.
At the solstice
the sun reaches its most southerly
position in the sky
and winter begins for the Northern Hemisphere while summer starts
South of the Equator.
This false-color
image of the sun was made about 48 hours before the
solstice in the
light of soft (lower energy) X-rays by a telescope on board the
space-based
Yohkho solar observatory.
The normally bright, visible solar surface or photosphere appears
dark in X-ray light while
active regions in the solar corona
which lie above the photosphere are particularly X-ray bright.
Solar photospheric temperatures are about 6,000 degrees C. but
the X-ray bright coronal regions have temperatures of millions of degrees.
Why is the sun's corona so hot?
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
