Solstice Celebration
Explanation:
Season's greetings!
At 01:48
Universal Time
on June 21 the Sun
reaches
its northernmost
point in planet Earth's sky
marking
a
season
change and the first solstice of the year 2000.
In
celebration,
consider
this delightfully detailed, brightly colored
image of the
active Sun.
From the
EIT instrument onboard
the space-based SOHO observatory,
the tantalizing picture is a false-color composite of three images all
made in extreme ultraviolet light.
Each
individual
image highlights a different
temperature regime
in the upper solar atmosphere and was assigned a specific color;
red at 2 million, green at 1.5 million, and blue at 1 million
degrees C.
The combined image
shows bright
active regions strewn across the solar
disk, which would otherwise appear as dark groups of sunspots in visible
light images, along with some magnificent plasma loops and an immense
prominence at the righthand solar limb.
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.
