Sunspot

I saw this amazing image of a sunspot, and thought I should share it with everyone

Caption: ©UCAR, image courtesy Matthias Rempel, NCAR

Seriously, I don't think we should stare at this too long … but for scientists who plan to, this new, high-resolution view of a sunspot stands to unlock secrets of the Sun's mysterious energetics.

In the just-released image above, the interface between a sunspot's umbra (dark center) and penumbra (lighter outer region) shows a complex structure with narrow, almost horizontal (lighter to white) filaments embedded in a background having a more vertical (darker to black) magnetic field. Farther out, extended patches of horizontal field dominate. For the first time, scientists have modeled this complex structure in a comprehensive 3D computer simulation, giving scientists their first glimpse below the visible surface.