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APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 4:08 am
by 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.
[/b]
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 8:55 am
by henrystar
Is the star field correct for some date?
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:27 am
by Sinan İpek
Any reason for the 11-years solar period?
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:53 pm
by neufer
Sinan İpek wrote:
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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle#Phenomena.2C_measurement.2C_and_causes wrote:
<<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.>>
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:17 pm
by 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.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:24 pm
by 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.]
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:25 pm
by Applefish
It reminds me of a atom under the microscope.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:34 pm
by neufer
APOD Robot wrote:
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.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:55 pm
by owlice
Someone on FB said this image looked like a microorganism covered with smaller microorganisms.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 3:56 pm
by 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
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 4:39 pm
by tomgow
It looks like a used sponge ball i used to play with as a kid!
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 4:46 pm
by ChrisKotsiopoulos
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 5:05 pm
by Chostany
Looks like an ovary to me
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 5:13 pm
by LocalColor
henrystar wrote: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!
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 5:34 pm
by ego
a dangerous asteroid !
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 6:23 pm
by chuckster
It looks like The Boss at the end of a particularly nasty video game.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 6:42 pm
by 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
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 6:57 pm
by stb1965
It looks like a human, unfertilized egg.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 6:58 pm
by 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.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 7:18 pm
by jasproles
A cell undergoing mitosis.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 8:46 pm
by 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.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 8:47 pm
by neptunium
Looks like a transluscent gray bubble to me. Pretty cool though.
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:23 pm
by a.niwa
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:41 pm
by areinheimer
Doesn't anyone think it looks like a tennis ball after the dog dropped it, besides me?
Re: APOD: Black Sun and Inverted Starfield (2012 Oct 15)
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:55 pm
by JimLafferty
@Anthony>>>>the image was taken on September 26, 2012.
Regards!
Jim
Jim Lafferty
Redland, California 92374
http://scopetrader.com/jimlafferty