                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2022 November 6

                       Dark Ball in Inverted Starfield
                         Image Credit: Jim Lafferty

   Explanation: Does this strange dark ball look somehow familiar? If so,
   that might be because it is our Sun. In the featured image from 2012, a
   detailed solar view was captured originally in a very specific color of
   red light, then rendered in black and white, and then color inverted.
   Once complete, the resulting image was added to a starfield, then also
   color inverted. Visible in the image of the Sun are long light
   filaments, dark active regions, prominences peeking around the edge,
   and a moving carpet of hot gas. The surface of our Sun can be a busy
   place, in particular during Solar Maximum, the time when its surface
   magnetic field is wound up the most. Besides an active Sun being so
   picturesque, the plasma expelled can also become picturesque when it
   impacts the Earth's magnetosphere and creates auroras.

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                     Tomorrow's picture: nebular mystery
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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