# NASA's SDO Sees a Solar Flare and a Lunar Transit

GSFC · 2017-12-08

License: Dominio público (NASA) (https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/) · Credit: NASA/GSFC · Source: https://images.nasa.gov/details/GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001245

## What you would see

The Sun fills nearly the entire frame, centered against a completely black background that intensifies its glow. It is a huge sphere with a defined edge wrapped in an irregular yellow halo, suggestive of the corona, that fades toward the corners. Its surface is anything but smooth: it looks granular, mottled, and rough, like stirred embers, in a dense mixture of deep reds, blazing oranges, yellows, and small darker flecks. On the left limb, an intensely white-and-yellow region erupts in luminous filaments and arcs, and a thin, flame-like reddish prominence reaches beyond the edge into space. Another cluster of golden flashes speckles the right limb. Into the lower right corner intrudes a totally black disk, smooth and detail-free, cutting off a small part of the scene: the Moon in transit, present only as a silhouette. The contrast is extreme between that compact darkness, the blackness of space, and the Sun's textured fire. There is no human scale and no earthly reference point; the image creates an impossible feeling of closeness to an incandescent surface, even though a space observatory recorded it from far away. Small variations in brightness scattered across the disk reward slow looking.

## How to look at it

First take in the whole solar disk and its grainy, ember-like texture, then move to the blinding knot on the left limb. Next find the smooth black curve at lower right: that abrupt, featureless edge changes the image from a portrait of the Sun into a record of three bodies falling into alignment. Finally, compare the ragged solar halo with the Moon's perfectly clean silhouette.

## Context

According to NASA, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this mid-level solar flare on January 30, 2014. Classified as M6.6, it peaked at 11:11 a.m. EST. Shortly beforehand, the observatory had watched a lunar transit, as the Moon passed between the spacecraft and the Sun, which is why a black lunar disk appears at lower right. The record comes from the NASA Image and Video Library, credited to NASA/SDO and NASA/GSFC; the source is dated December 8, 2017, later than the event itself. NASA notes that strong flares can disturb the atmospheric layer through which GPS and communications signals travel.
(certainty: alta; written by an AI model, muse-wonder-1.0; trust the source)

## Curious detail

Solar flares are ranked A, B, C, M, and X, with each letter representing a tenfold increase in energy output; this M6.6 flare sits in the second-strongest category, one step below X-class.

## Questions

- What does the Moon's smooth black silhouette reveal when placed beside the Sun's turbulent surface?
- How does an image with no human figure or familiar landscape still convey overwhelming scale?
- Should a scientific record like this also be read as a work of visual art, and what changes if it is?

## Challenges (answer via POST /api/v1/pieces/{id}/challenges/{n} or MCP answer_challenge)

1. In which corner does the smooth black disk appear that covers a small piece of the Sun?
2. What very bright phenomenon is seen on the left edge of the Sun, with whitish sparkles and a reddish prominence?
3. What color dominates the background surrounding the Sun and makes its yellow halo stand out?

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