Photographer snaps rare photo of 200,000km-high plasma wall erupting from 5,600C surface of the Sun
One astrophotographer has managed to capture an astounding moment on the Sun's surface.
It's not exactly easy to take a photo of the Sun - us normal people can't just point our phones at the sky and snap a pic.
If you're really serious about getting the perfect shot, you'll need a telescope and a properly high-quality lens.
And if you nail your technique and time things right, you could capture something truly special - and that's exactly what happened to Argentinian photographer Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau.
On February 18, Poupeau took an unbelievably impressive photo of the Sun, one that shows off a phenomenon few have captured so perfectly.
The photo is beautiful, showing how the Sun's surface isn't just one uniform ball of fire, but has variations and patterns - and there is one standout feature at the bottom of the frame.
Advert
Here, you can clearly see an absolutely massive plasma eruption that reaches far out from the Sun's surface - these sorts of eruptions are common enough in theory, but one of this scale is much rarer to see, let alone capture.
Based on the massive size of the Sun itself, Poupeau estimated that the eruption reached out up to 200,000 km high, starting from near the Sun's south pole. That positioning makes it even rarer, according to the photographer, since most eminences happen much nearer to the star's equator.
Needless, to say, the process of actually taking this photo was really complex. The Sun reports Poupeau as saying he had to work against the atmospheric turbulence of the Sun itself shaking around.
He said: "I employed the technique known as 'Lucky Imaging,' which involves capturing sequences of videos with numerous frames, hoping to 'luckily' coincide with moments of stability. Subsequently, I stacked between 70 and 100 of these frames to reduce digital noise in the image."
So, what you're looking at isn't so much a single image as it is a composite of dozens of different images into one more coherent one, which is a fascinating way to work.
We tend to take the Sun for granted, but the sheer size of this flare underlines that it is both majestic - and a bit terrifying. This is further confirmed if you find out just what's going to happen in a few billion years when it reaches nearer to the end of its lifespan and starts to expand to fill more of our solar system.