Similarities

Click on the photo for detail

This morning I was fascinated to see the Astronomy Picture of the Day showing what are called spicules on the sun. They are pipes of hot gas, as long as the earth is wide and as big around as a whole state (Rhode Island? Texas? They didn’t say.)

Wet hair on Geronimo, The World’s Greatest Horse

Drawing by Vincent van Gogh after his painting, The Starry Night

The solar photo reminded me of a picture I took of Geronimo’s hair after a rainstorm, and a drawing Vincent van Gogh made from his painting, The Starry Night. Click on the photo of the sun to enlarge it, then click again on the enlargement to make it even bigger. But don’t overdo it; you could eventually make it life-size, fall into one of the pipes, and be consumed by the hot gas.

Credits
Spicules: Jets on the Sun, Astronomy Picture of the Day;
Credit: K. Reardon (Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, INAF) IBIS, DST, NSO.
Van Gogh drawing: Wikipedia

Colors of the sun

Today’s Astronomy Picture of the day is of the colors of the sun. Feh! I can find more colors in the paint section of The Home Depot. My parents’ 1957 Chevrolet was painted in two colors that don’t even show on this chart—Dusk Rose and White! I mean, where’s white? Dumn sun.

Credit & Copyright: Nigel Sharp (NSF), FTS, NSO, KPNO, AURA, NSF

Sun eats yet another comet

Friday seemed totally normal to most of us, but those who keep an obsessive eye on the sun were shocked, I tell you, shocked to see that the sun ate yet another comet. It’s not like we’re going to run out of comets, but still…

The brutality, the utter remorselessness. Click here to see the terrible act in motion. Shield the eyes of any youngsters who are not used to the violence of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Story here on Spaceweather.com.