The Sun Is A Writhing Ball of Solar Activity. Ain’t No Slouching Right Hurr.

Enlarge. | Via.

The Sun hasn’t been fucking around this year. Massive solar activity, sunspots. So we haven’t been messing around in our coverage of it. Check out this big beautiful picture of our Solar Engine.

NASA:

Our Sun is becoming a busy place. Taken just last week, the Sun was captured sporting numerous interesting features including one of the larger sunspot groups yet recorded: AR 1339 visible on the image right. Only  last year, the Sun was emerging from an  unusually quiet  Solar Minimum  that lasted for years. The  above image  was recorded in a  single color  of light called  Hydrogen Alpha, inverted, and false colored.  Spiculescover much of the Sun’s face. The gradual brightening towards the Sun’s edges is caused by increased absorption of relatively cool solar gas and called  limb darkening. Just over the Sun’s edges, several scintillatingprominences  protrude, while prominences on the Sun’s face are seen as light streaks. Possibly the most visually interesting of all are the magnetically tangled active regions containing cool sunspots. As our Sun’s magnetic field winds toward  Solar Maximum  over the next few years,  increased activity  will likely create times when the Sun’s face is even more complex.

Pretty boss! Keep it up, dear Sol.