SOLAR ACTIVITY: In the pits of a century-level solar minimum, the sun is setting new records for quiet. But really, how quiet can a 1027-ton nuclear explosion (a star) ever be? The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded some lively action on August 25th:
http://spaceweather.com/swpod2009/26aug09/soho_anim.gif
The time-lapse movie shows a prominence, a swirling cloud of hydrogen held up unsteadily by solar magnetic fields. Prominences appear to be the one form of solar activity that continues apace even when sunspots are absent. Readers with solar telescopes, for a good show train your optics on the edge of the sun.
more images: from Joe Bartolick of Livermore, California; from Michael Buxton of Ocean Beach, California.
