Winter doldrums getting you down? Let this amazing photo of the sun brighten your day. The smoky puff on the left is a remnant of a solar flare that erupted from the sunspot below.
Astrophotographer Alan Friedman captured this shot at a star party in the Florida Keys last week, using a fairly small amateur telescope. His website has a whole collection of space snapshots and more boiling sun photos like this one. Click through to Bad Astronomy for a nice description of how it was done.
See the two sunspots beneath the puff? The little one, to the right, is twice the size of Earth.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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That is by far the most stunning picture of the sun I've ever seen.
What Is Science but A Continual Lesson of The Challenge To Studying The Entire Known Existence of Everything.
-Truth-
Look's like a Vincent van Gogh painting.
Excellent picture!
This is beautiful! Best Sun picture I've seen by far!
38KKK
*D Ace Lee*
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It's amazing =) THE best picture of the sun I've ever seen!