Astronomers have created an astonishing view of the Sun by stitching together 90,000 images.
A composite image of the Sun made up of 90,000 individual photos. (Image: Andrew McCarthy/Jason Guenzel)
To create this image, Andrew McCarthy and Jason Guenzel utilized several of their own photographs, including images of the total solar eclipse taken in 2017, along with a data archive from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a spacecraft launched by NASA in 1995 in collaboration with the European Space Agency, Live Science reported on April 5.
The duo stitched together approximately 90,000 images of the Sun to produce the final piece they call “The Fusion of Helios”, showcasing the star’s fiery surface with swirling plasma rays resembling the fuzz covering a tennis ball.
Prominently featured in the upper right corner of the image is the “plasma vortex” that is the tallest ever recorded at the Sun’s north pole. It reaches a height of 178,000 kilometers, equivalent to 14 Earths lined up. This event lasted about three days before transforming into a plasma cloud and being expelled into space.
Close-up of the Sun’s surface with plasma rays and a plasma vortex. (Image: Andrew McCarthy/Jason Guenzel).
One challenge McCarthy and Guenzel faced was capturing both the corona (the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere) and the chromosphere (a thin layer of plasma located between the corona and the visible surface of the Sun). These parts can only be observed under certain conditions.
“We wanted to push astronomical photography techniques as far as possible both scientifically and artistically by creating ultra-accurate images of the Sun that break conventional astronomical photography rules. We aimed to create a complete mosaic of the Sun,” McCarthy shared.
Guenzel further emphasized that the work “The Fusion of Helios” is the “most detailed and vibrant” image of the Sun that he and McCarthy have ever created.
