APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)

[APOD Robot]

Black Sun and Inverted Starfield

Explanation: Does this strange dark ball look somehow familiar? If so, that might be because it is our Sun. In the above image, a detailed solar view was captured originally in a very specific color of red light, then rendered in black and white, and then color inverted. Once complete, the resulting image was added to a starfield, then also color inverted. Visible in the above image of the Sun are long light filaments, dark active regions, prominences peaking around the edge, and a moving carpet of hot gas. The surface of our Sun has become a particularly busy place over the past two years because it is now nearing Solar Maximum, the time when its surface magnetic field is wound up the most. Besides an active Sun being so picturesque, the plasma expelled can also become picturesque when it impacts the Earth's magnetosphere and creates auroras.

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[henrystar]

Is the star field correct for some date?

[Sinan İpek]

Any reason for the 11-years solar period?

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]Solar latitude diagram of the radial component of the solar magnetic field. (NASA)[/color][/b]

---

Any reason for the 11-years solar period?

22-year solar period actually.

The bipolar solar magnetic field certainly gets all twisted up because the rotation rate at the equator is considerably faster than the rate near the poles.

In any event, active magnetic dynamos such as the sun and earth have quasi-periodic reversals of their bipolar magnetic field but nobody understands it very well.

[b][color=#0000FF]Diagram of temporal changes in Earth's magnetic declination field.[/color][/b]

---

<<Dynamo theory proposes a mechanism by which a celestial body such as the Earth or a star generates a magnetic field. The theory describes the process through which a rotating, convecting, and electrically conducting fluid can maintain a magnetic field over astronomical time scales.

The basic causes of the solar variability and solar cycles are still under debate, with some researchers suggesting a link with the tidal forces due to the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, or due to the solar inertial motion. Another cause of sun spots can be solar jet stream "torsional oscillation".

Patterns have been noted in solar cycles. For example, the Waldmeier effect is the phenomenon that cycles with larger maximum amplitudes tend to take less time to reach their maxima than cycles with smaller amplitudes; there is also a negative correlation between maximum amplitudes and the lengths of earlier cycles, which allows a degree of prediction.>>

[Psnarf]

200 days of no spots in 2008
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... blankyear/
http://spaceweather.com/glossary/sunspotnumber.html shows a plot of the sunspot cycle from 1750-2000.
http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/co ... 000-2009-2 plot sunspot number 2000 through 2009
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/index.html 2012 monthly plot
Nobody knows what's the deal, but there does appear to be sunspot cycles with a period of 22 years.

[Psnarf]

--
Obquote: "There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps; Astronomer in the Sun's lucent Orbe; through his glaz'd Optic Tube yet never saw." -Paradise Lost, by John Milton, 1674, Book 3, Line 590.

[I'd have to figure out how to translate the original line, but it does suggest that Milton witnessed a sunspot circa 1674 which left an impression strong enough to evoke a comment.]

[Applefish]

It reminds me of a atom under the microscope.

[neufer]

Black Sun and Inverted Starfield

Explanation: Does this strange dark ball look somehow familiar? If so, that might be because it is our Sun. A detailed solar view was captured originally in a very specific color of red light, then rendered in black and white, and then color inverted. Once complete, the resulting image was added to a starfield, then also color inverted. Visible in the above image of the Sun are long light filaments, dark active regions, prominences peaking around the edge, and a moving carpet of hot gas. The surface of our Sun has become a particularly busy place over the past two years because it is now nearing Solar Maximum, the time when its surface magnetic field is wound up the most. Besides an active Sun being so picturesque, the plasma expelled can also become picturesque when it impacts the Earth's magnetosphere and creates auroras.

[owlice]

Someone on FB said this image looked like a microorganism covered with smaller microorganisms.

[Leonardjk]

As this image was scrolling onto my screen I first thought it was something completely different. A human egg cell. See this link for an example that is eerily close.

http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/312714/enlarge

Leonard

[tomgow]

It looks like a used sponge ball i used to play with as a kid!

[ChrisKotsiopoulos]

http://sjbm.fr/blog/wp-content/uploads/ ... dation.jpg

[Chostany]

Looks like an ovary to me

[LocalColor]

Is the star field correct for some date?

We were pondering the same question. Perhaps a star field image 12 hours before or after the sun photo?

Had to save the .gif of the "Diagram of temporal changes in Earth's magnetic declination field." - will be staring at that over and over. Fascinating!

[ego]

a dangerous asteroid !

[chuckster]

It looks like The Boss at the end of a particularly nasty video game.

[JimLafferty]

To answer Henrystar>>>> no, the star field is not correct for the sun's location at that moment---The solar image was captured with a Lunt 100 Ha telescope double stacked with a Coronado 90 Ha filter for .5angstroms. The starfield was captured with a Takahashi FSQ106N refractor. The camera was an imaging source DMK41 USB CCD camera.
Thanks to all for your kind comments

Jim

Jim Lafferty
Redlands, California
http://scopetrader.com/jimlafferty

[stb1965]

It looks like a human, unfertilized egg.

[Anthony Barreiro]

When was this picture taken? I keep track of sunspots in white light, and find it interesting to correlate hydrogen alpha and ultraviolet images with how the Sun appears through a humble white light solar filter.

[jasproles]

A cell undergoing mitosis.

[Mark J]

The Black Sun and inverted starfield look very much like a tennis ball at the end of rough life lying on a slab of concrete.

[neptunium]

Looks like a transluscent gray bubble to me. Pretty cool though.

[a.niwa]

It looks like a lymphocyte.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lymphocyte

[areinheimer]

Doesn't anyone think it looks like a tennis ball after the dog dropped it, besides me?

[JimLafferty]

@Anthony>>>>the image was taken on September 26, 2012.

Regards!

Jim

Jim Lafferty
Redland, California 92374
http://scopetrader.com/jimlafferty