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> Sun: coronal holes seen by Skylab

Sun: coronal holes seen by Skylab

author: Nasa/Novapix

reference: a-sol02-00006

Image Size 300 DPI: 25 * 20 cm

This montage is a sequence of soft x-ray photographs of the boot-shaped coronal hole rotating with the sun. The individual pictures were taken about 2 days apart by the Skylab telescope. Most of the apparent changes in this 6-day period resulted from a changing perspective. Skylab data helped demonstrate that coronal holes are sources of high-velocity streams in the solar wind. These high-velocity streams can be electrons, protons, and atomic nuclei that spray out from the Sun into interplanetary space. When the coronal hole is near the center of the Sun, as in view 2, the sprinkler is directed at Earth. These high-speed streams of solar wind distort Earth's magnetic field and disturb it's upper atmosphere.

Keywords for this photo:

1973 - ASTRONOMY - CORONA - CORONAL HOLE - GLOBAL VIEW - ROTATION - SKYLAB - SOLAR CORONA - STAR - SUN - X - X-RAY -