The Sun
A view of the Sun that blinds the camera to visible light, revealing the invisible magnetic skeleton that holds our star together.
Visual Provenance
This is not a standard photograph but a data visualization in extreme ultraviolet light (171 Ångstroms). By blocking visible light, the image reveals the Sun's magnetic atmosphere (corona), which is usually invisible. The golden loops trace magnetic field lines, showing the hidden structural skeleton that shapes our star.
Selective Blindness
To see the truth of the Sun, we have to stop looking at its light. If you look at the Sun with human eyes (or a standard camera), you see the Photosphere: a blindingly bright surface at about 6,000 Kelvin. It is so bright that it washes out everything else. This artifact works by "blinding" the sensor to that visible glare. The SDO Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) uses mirrors coated to reflect only Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) light at exactly 171 Ångstroms. By ignoring the surface, the instrument reveals the ghost in the machine: the Corona. This golden halo is the Sun's magnetic atmosphere, a place of violent loops and arches that are usually invisible to us. The image shows that sometimes we need to look away from the obvious to see what's really happening. By filtering out the bright surface, we reveal the complex magnetic structure that drives the Sun's behavior.
Solar nebula begins collapse
The Sun
Red Giant Phase
Solar nebula begins collapse
The Sun
Red Giant Phase
The Iron Eye
The 171 Ångström wavelength corresponds to iron atoms that have lost 8 electrons (Fe IX), glowing at about 1 million Kelvin. This is not the Sun's surface, but its corona—the superheated outer atmosphere that extends millions of kilometers into space. The loops and arches we see are plasma (ionized gas) trapped along magnetic field lines, like iron filings around a magnet, but at temperatures hotter than the surface of the Sun. The corona shows that the Sun is not just a ball of fire, but a complex magnetic system. The energy that powers the corona comes from the magnetic fields generated deep within the Sun, twisted and released through the surface.
Artifact Profile
The Fusion Engine
The Sun is a fusion reactor, converting hydrogen into helium at its core and releasing energy that has powered life on Earth for billions of years. The magnetic fields we see in this image are generated by the churning motion of plasma in the Sun's interior, twisted and amplified by the star's rotation. The corona is where this magnetic energy is released, creating the beautiful loops and arches that trace the invisible structure of the solar magnetic field. This image connects the Planck Epoch to the present day. The energy we see here—the fusion reactions, the magnetic fields, the light that reaches Earth—all trace back to that initial burst of energy from the beginning of time.
The Sun Hoodie
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View Design
Data Source: The Human Archives
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