Categories
Awesomeness Science & Technology Video Clips

Hot, With a Chance of Coronal Rain

Every day is a scorcher on the star at the centre of our solar system. And on some days it even rains.

In mid-July 2012, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a most beautiful phenomenon that resulted from the combination of solar winds and a solar flare. It’s termed coronal rain.

As the plasma cools and fall back to the surface, the Sun’s magnetic field creates a series of coronal loops that look like they were streams from a sourceless waterfall. The time-lapse video captures a coronal rain shower that lasted 10 hours at temperatures over 49,000 degrees Celsius! See it below.

[via APOD]

Categories
Arty Science & Technology Video Clips

Black Rain

Black Rain is a short film by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt from the art duo, Semiconductor. They sourced the images from the satellites used in NASA’s STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) mission that traced the flow of energy and matter from the Sun to Earth.

Working with STEREO scientists, Semiconductor collected all the HI image data to date, revealing the journey of the satellites from their initial orientation, to their current tracing of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Solar wind, CMEs (coronal mass ejections), passing planets and comets orbiting the sun can be seen as background stars and the milky way pass by.

Have a look at Black Rain below.

[via CreativeApplications]