NASA has released a stunning image of our Sun, which appears to be sending out Xrays.
The US space agency took to its Instagram on Sunday to reveal the stunning stellar photo, which was taken with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
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What is NuSTAR?
NuSTAR, a space-based Xray telescope, focuses on high energy Xrays from astrophysical sources.
It helps astronomers map microflares at the Sun’s surface by observing the cosmos.
Viewers can see multi-color, X-rays from the sun in the composite NuSTAR Nasa image. It is overlayed with one from Solar Dynamics Observatory.
“Observations from NuSTAR shows high-energy solar emissions of various strength in green and blue, while the SDO view highlights lower-temperature material in the solar atmosphere in red,”In its post, Nasa explained.
What do these Xray colors signify?
This image’s green color shows energies of between 2 and 3 Kiloelectron Volts (or KeV).
Meanwhile, the blue indicates points between 3 and 5 kiloelectron volts; one keV is equal to 1000 electron volts.
Nasa noted that high-energy Xrays are also produced by gas heated to over 3 million degrees.
What is the SDO and what are its benefits?
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (Nasa mission) has been monitoring the Sun since 2010.
SDO allows astronomers to study the Sun in a new way than NuSTAR.
SDO monitors specifically the “Sun’s influence on Earth and Near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere and magnetic field,” Nasa said.
Reactions of users
Since it was made public, hundreds of thousands of Instagram users have liked Nasa’s image.
“Amazement,”One user stated.
“We love you Nasa,”An additional person may be added.
“Omg, very very gorgeous,”A third Instagrammer declared.