Astronomy Picture of the Day -- A Prominence on the Sun

NASA ^ | September 19, 2015 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: This eerie landscape of incandescent plasma suspended in looping and twisted magnetic fields stretched toward the Sun's eastern horizon on September 16. Captured through a backyard telescope and narrowband filter in light from ionized hydrogen, the scene reveals a gigantic prominence lofted above the solar limb. Some 600,000 kilometers across, the magnetized plasma wall would dwarf worlds of the Solar System. Ruling gas giant Jupiter can only boast a diameter of 143,000 kilometers or so, while planet Earth's diameter is less than 13,000 kilometers. Known as a hedgerow prominence for its appearance, the enormous structure is far from stable though, and such large solar prominences often erupt.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit and Copyright: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)]

[SunkenCiv]

for later, small:

http://129.164.179.22/apod/image/1509/solarsaurus_friedman1024.jpg

large:

http://129.164.179.22/apod/image/1509/solarsaurus_friedman.jpg

[SunkenCiv]

Here’s some full fruitfly stuff, makes me wonder what’s going through the mind of the next person in the checkout line:

The Moon does not exist!
http://www.revisionism.nl/Moon/The-Mad-Revisionist.htm

David Icke: The moon is not real
https://www.metabunk.org/david-icke-the-moon-is-not-real.t156/

The Moon Isn’t Real (Again)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlkFbfI4UPM

The Moon Is An Illusion & No One Goes Above Low Earth Orbit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQVVOAyu3vs

or, it is real, but fake:

The Moon is Not a Natural Planet
http://www.whobuiltthemoon.com/the-moon-is-not-a-natural-planet.html

OTOH:

Donovan - The Sun is a Very Magic Fellow - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEyjI-UrOP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9dtdtyi0kA

[going hot]

Eastern horizon?

[mwilli20]

Well ... the horizon over which the Earth rises in the morning of course.

Joking aside, the Sun has poles as it rotates around an axis. I assume we picked the cardinal points by some convention.

[samtheman]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

[minnesota_bound]

I believe I see what is causing “global warming”.
Mainly during the summer months.

[SunkenCiv]

Humans will have to study that further, I suggest doing it at night. ;').

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks samtheman. We're in a sunspot minimum, have been for some time, so, no worries. Plus, the impact of a Carrington event is probably greatly overstated.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks mwilli20. The north pole of the Sun points in basically the same direction as the north pole of the Earth, and the Sun rotates in the same direction, IOW, toward the east. Luckily no one lives on the Sun, or some libtard would want us to follow their convention.

[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[samtheman]

You’re probably right. It’s an interesting concept.

[sargon]

Awesome photo.

[going hot]

Interesting.

So, the east is defined as the right side of the sun because we are looking at it and the North pole of the sun points to (currently) Polaris hence the east is to the right.

So, what happens when the poles flip, the east becomes the west, or do we continue on calling the right side the east, although the north now points 180 degrees the other way?

Is the current north pole of the sun on top?

[SunkenCiv]

Good question... the way to find that out would be to look up Uranus (stop snickering), as the axis is nearly in the ecliptic.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) It always looks like a sphere of strings or worms to me, the Biggest Ball of Yarn. But really hot. :’)

[going hot]

regards Uranus, (the planet) if the poles are on the ecliptic, and therefore it's rotation is more like it is rolling along in it's orbit rather than spinning, as it were, does it retain that angle, like a gyroscope, as it orbits the sun, pole always aligned in the same direction, or does the pole also "revolve"?

I will need another beer and V8 to figure that one.

[Delta 21]

[SunkenCiv]

:')

As a planet orbits the sun, if its rotation axis is tilted, the portion that is tilted toward the sun will receive an excess of sunlight and energy (summer), while the hemisphere which is tilted away from the sun will receive less sunlight and energy (winter). Half a year later, the hemisphere which receives the most sun will be reversed. The fact that there may be an excess or a loss of light and energy affects planetary weather. Because Uranus lies on its side, with the north pole facing the sun, Uranus' seasons should be very strange. The north pole faces the sun, which means it is in daylight, and the atmosphere in that hemisphere never rotates to the dark side to cool. The south pole faces away from the sun, and the atmosphere in that hemisphere never rotates into daylight to warm up. As Uranus orbits the sun, the north pole will be in daylight for half of a year (spring and summer). This means a Uranus day is the same as a Uranus summer. The weather of such a planet should be very strange.

[going hot]

As a body shrinks, it’s angular momentum, the spin rate, increases. All the planets save Uranus generally line up with their poles in the same direction. Uranus spins at a 90 degree tilt. Either it took one large hit to wobble it off it’s axis and settled sideways, or it just might be a captured planet.