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Solar flare captured by National Solar Observatory
A solar flare captured by the National Solar Observatory’s (NSO) Integrated Synoptic Program (NSO/NISP). This colorized image shows the chromosphere of the sun. The brightening at left-center is plasma in the vicinity of a sunspot that is rapidly heated during an eruptive event, called a solar flare. Prominences visible off the edge of the solar disk are large collections of cooler gas trapped by magnetic field lines and suspended above the solar surface. Once operational, NSO's new Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), which is currently under construction on the summit of Haleakalā on Maui, Hawaii, will be able to take pictures similar to this but in much greater detail. (Date image taken: 2017; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: July 12, 2017)
Credit: NSO/AURA/NSF
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