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TESIS XUV image of the Solar Limb
Credit: S. Kuzin, S. Bogachev; TESIS team


The Sun is Burning

The structures above resemble tongues of flame over surface of the Sun. How are they formed? Now, in the minimum of solar activity, the magnetic field of the corona is weakened, and the cooler plasma from lower layers of the solar atmosphere easily penetrates upwards, forming beautiful and bizarre structures. The image above was captured on March 8th, 2009 by the Russian TESIS Solar Observatory on board the CORONAS-PHOTON spacecraft, which was launched on January 30, 2009 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, northern Russia. TESIS is an instrument (PI Professor Sergey Kuzin, Lebedev Institute, Moscow) consisting of 2 telescopes with multi-layer mirrors designed for observing the Sun from space in the extreme ultraviolet.
Published: May 18, 2009


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Each week the HEASARC brings you new, exciting and beautiful images from X-ray and Gamma ray astronomy. Check back each week and be sure to check out the HEAPOW archive!


Page Author: Dr. S. Bogachev & Dr. Michael F. Corcoran
Last modified Monday, 25-May-2009 11:35:01 EDT