io9: solar porn

Welcome Back Sunspots With The Many Colors Of Solar Pop Art

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:20:00 PDT

Sunspots have returned at last, after a worryingly dormant solar minimum. To celebrate, here are four current solar pictures from NASA's Solar And Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). They're the sun at 304 Angstrom, 171 Angstrom, 195 Angstrom and 204 Angstrom.

Is NASA Acting Out Danny Boyle's Sunshine For Real?

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:38:16 PDT

Award-winning space photographer Thierry Legault traveled to Florida to take this picture of the Space Shuttle Atlantis passing in front of the sun. And click through to see Atlantis and Hubble meeting in the sunshine.

[via Spaceweather]

Is This Shockwave Our Only Warning Of A "Solar Katrina"?

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:21:05 PDT

Check out the eruption on the left side of this picture — that's a shockwave plowing through the sun's atmosphere. Could this be the early warning sign of a Solar Katrina?

The image was captured by NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft, which sounds like an early 90s rapper, using its Extreme UV camera. I'm going to start dropping those phrases into conversation: "I'm feeling like taking it to the extreme UV, like STEREO-B."

But this picture may be cool-looking, but it's a bit more alarming after you read this ABC News article, which the NASA site links to, about the potential devastation that a "Solar Katrina," caused by solar storms, could wreak on Earth:

More than a million people without power. The distribution of drinkable water disrupted. Transportation, communication and banking upset. Trillions of dollars in damage... Severe weather in the sun's outer atmosphere could knock out much of the country's power grid, incapacitate navigational systems and jeopardize spacecraft, scientists say.

Bottom line: probably best to keep an eye on STEREO-B. [NASA via SpaceWeather]