Ultraviolet Image of the Sun

From the Dvice.com blog, this photo from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The article explains that the purplish aura we see is in fact high-arcing loops of 3.6-million-degree plasma that link sunspots and other magnetic areas on the surface. (the white lines are added by a computer to better illustrates the structures across the surface of the Sun.)

From the Wikipedia article on the Solar Dynamics Observatory

• SDO's goal is to understand the Sun's influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere in many wavelengths simultaneously. SDO will investigate how the Sun's magnetic field is generated and structured, how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind,

All that aside, it's a damn cool pic!

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