Sunspot Photos

[dasa]

Best sun pictures ever show new solar features

By Richard Stenger

CNN

Monday, November 18, 2002 Posted: 2:49 PM EST (1949 GMT)

The new Swedish solar telescope in the Canary Islands documented previously unknown sunspot traits.

(CNN) -- Resembling the work of Vincent Van Gogh, the most detailed images of the sun ever exhibit masterful golden swirls and bizarre dark clouds.

 

The pictures were taken by a new Swedish telescope on the Canary Island of La Palma, one of the best places on Earth to view the sun.

 

The Atlantic Ocean observatory documented previously unknown features: thin, dark cores within the bright filaments that encircle sunspots, which are intense magnetic storms that erupt like dark blemishes on the solar surface.

 

"The new structures we see may be the building blocks of the solar magnetic activity," said Dan Kiselman, co-author of a report in the November 14 issue of the journal Nature.

 

The Swedish physicist cautioned that researchers would require more time and data to understand the phenomena.

 

"We are starting to hear from theorists who are beginning to think over this, but it is too early to say now in which way they will head," he said.

 

Kiselman and colleagues plan more observations with the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences telescope, which boasts an ideal blend of geography and technology to watch the sun.