The Sun Erupts
Credit: Skylab, NASA

Explanation: The Sun is a seething ball of extremely hot gas. Above, the Sun was captured by Skylab in 1973 throwing off one the largest eruptive prominences in recorded history. The Sun has survived for about 5 billion years, and  will likely survive for another 5 billion. The Sun is not on fire, will never explode, and a solar flare will never destroy the Earth. The Sun continues to present many unanswered questions.  For example: Why is the Sun's corona so hot? What causes the Sun's unusual magnetic field? Why does the Sun's center emit so few neutrinos?

You can find this photo and other exciting images on the Astronomy Picture of the Day web site. Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written  by a professional astronomer.

                                                                                                                                              NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

                                                                                                                                              It's a "coronal hole," a vast region where the sun's magnetic field has opened up and allowed the solar wind to escape.

                                                                                                                                              Indeed, a solar wind stream flowing from this hole is heading toward Earth, due to arrive on June 7th or 8th

Award winning astrophotographer Thierry Legault wanted to image the Hubble Space Telescope and space shuttle Atlantis traveling together around Earth.

 The suns core is at a temperature of 15.6 million Kelvin, the surface is 5800 and the pressure is 250 billion Atmospheres

Russian astronomy amateur - Alexei Prudnikov.

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