What’s this space ‘disco ball’? NASA shares new photos of a regular part of your life

On a bright, sunny day, most people see a yellow and orange orb up in the sky. That’s because we can only see some of the wavelengths of light coming from the Sun.

Underneath, a multicolored light party dances through the Sun’s atmosphere.

With new images released from NASA, we can get an invite to the exclusive show.

The NuSTAR telescope typically looks outside our solar system’s boundaries, focusing on black holes and collapsed stars. But, it has recently focused a little closer to home.

In a Feb. 9 news release, NASA shared images from the NuSTAR telescope, which uses X-ray views and data to create a composite image of some of the Sun’s hottest spots.

The telescope data was used to create an image that showed Sun hot spots in blue. Then, X-ray data from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s XRT telescope was used to create the mapping in green. Finally, data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory was used to create the map in red.

When these images were overlaid, they created a heat map that shows temperature differences in bright colors throughout the Sun’s atmosphere.

In the release, which was also shared by Caltech, where the NuSTAR research is based, scientists said the images could help them answer a question about the corona, or the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

The corona can reach temperatures of more than 1 million degrees, or at least 100 times hotter than the Sun’s surface.

“This has puzzled scientists because the Sun’s heat originates in its core and travels outward,” scientists said. “It’s as if the air around a fire were 100 times hotter than the flames.”

Scientists believe the cause of the corona heat difference might be a phenomenon called nanoflares, or small bursts of heat from the Sun. These nanoflares have been nearly impossible to detect, but the NuSTAR telescope and X-ray imaging might now make it possible.

The telescope can “detect light from the high-temperature material thought to be produced when a large number of nanoflares occur close to one another,” scientists said.

The images will help scientists learn more about how often nanoflares take place and how they might be contributing to the higher temperatures.

Reactions to the images on Twitter said the Sun looks like a “strobe light disco ball” or a “manifestation of its wonderful aura that radiates its magnificence.”

NASA called them the Sun’s “hidden light shows.”

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