Science / Medicine : Sun Flare Photos Shot by Telescope in Space

The sharpest pictures ever of flares on the surface of the sun have been obtained by astrophysicist Leo Golub of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory using an X-ray telescope fired by rocket to a height of 150 miles above the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico. The telescope took 40 pictures of the sun during a five-minute period of intense solar disturbances before being parachuted to the ground.

The intense ring of solar disturbances have an average temperature of 2 million to 3 million degrees, far higher than the average surface temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and the brightest are as hot as 10 million degrees.

Solar flares are eruptions that burst suddenly from the sun’s surface, sending out waves of electromagnetic radiation and charged particles that disrupt communication on Earth and cause northern lights. The sun is currently approaching the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle, when solar activity is at its highest.