Thursday, February 28, 2013

The Sun blows a raspberry


It seems NASA has discovered a new, temporary radiation belt surrounding Earth.  To me, however, the really amazing part of the discovery was what they think may have caused it - a spectacular eruption of solar plasma on August 31st, 2012.  Here's a reduced-size photograph of it.




It's astonishing to realize that pillar of plasma is millions of miles long!  A full-size version of the photograph may be seen here.  It makes a spectacular wallpaper background for your computer screen.

Peter

2 comments:

trailbee said...

So, they're saying they caused it, like we cause Global Warming? Tsk, tsp, tsp. :)

Anonymous said...

Being the mature woman that I am, the line "the sun blew a raspberry," caused uncontrollable giggling...