The Sun now

Image from the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI)

The Sun's visible surface today.
LOOK for small dark patches, the sunspots. They often come in pairs or groups and they are scenes of intense magnetic fields. You can sometimes relate the sunspots to very hot and stormy regions in the atmosphere above, seen in the ultraviolet (EIT) images. Each sunspot gradually moves across the visible surface as the Sun rotates. From far left to far right takes it two weeks.