Astronomy Picture of the Day

APOD — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 22:10:10 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

11 June 2023

The Sun and Its Missing Colors

Image Credit: Nigel Sharp (NSF), FTS, NSO, KPNO, AURA, NSF

Here are all the visible colors of the Sun, produced by passing the Sun's light through a prism-like device. The spectrum was created at the McMath-Pierce Solar Observatory and shows, first off, that although our white-appearing Sun emits light of nearly every color, it appears brightest in yellow-green light. The dark patches in the featured spectrum arise from gas at or above the Sun's surface absorbing sunlight emitted below. Since different types of gas absorb different colors of light, it is possible to determine what gasses compose the Sun. Helium, for example, was first discovered in 1868 on a solar spectrum and only later found here on Earth. Today, the majority of spectral absorption lines have been identified - but not all.

#APOD #Light #Sun #Spectrum #star

Posted manually due to troubles at NASA APOD API

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230611.html

Astronomy Picture of the Day

APOD — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 15:31:50 GMT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

06 June 2023

Star Eats Planet
Illustrative Video

https://youtu.be/SmuG7odUe9c

Credit: K. Miller & R. Hurt (Caltech, IPAC)

It’s the end of a world as we know it. Specifically, the Sun-like star ZTF SLRN-2020 was seen eating one of its own planets. Although many a planet eventually dies by spiraling into their central star, the 2020 event, involving a Jupiter-like planet, was the first time it was seen directly. The star ZTF SLRN-2020 lies about 12,000 light years from the Sun toward the constellation of the Eagle (Aquila). In the featured animated illustration of the incident, the gas planet's atmosphere is first pictured being stripped away as it skims along the outskirts of the attracting star. Some of the planet's gas is absorbed into the star's atmosphere, while other gas is expelled into space. By the video's end, the planet is completely engulfed and falls into the star's center, causing the star's outer atmosphere to briefly expand, heat up, and brighten. One day, about eight billion years from now, planet Earth may spiral into our Sun.

#APOD #star #Universe #planet #spacechaos

Posted manually due to troubles at NASA API (503)

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230606.html