March 21, 2007
1 min read
Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAmSwan on the Sun
Does anybody else see a swan? Tangled magnetic fields lying just beneath the surface of the Sun have intertwined with a swirl of hot gas to produce a strikingly birdlike form.
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Does anybody else see a swan? Tangled magnetic fields lying just beneath the surface of the Sun have intertwined with a swirl of hot gas to produce a strikingly birdlike form. The Hinode spacecraft captured the x-ray image as it monitored the Sun's corona, where magnetic fields may be the source of million-degree heat—if not the mythical Phoenix.
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