Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: Recorded on July 7, this animation using X-ray images of the Sun shows an amazing event - three nearly simultaneous jets connected with solar active regions. The two frames were taken several hours apart by the Soft X-ray Telescope on board the orbiting Yohkoh observatory. They have a "negative" color scheme, the darker colors representing more intense X-rays from the corona and active regions on the solar surface. The pictures clearly show two curving jets of X-ray hot plasma appearing above the solar equator and one below. A sharp vertical stripe near the jet above center is a digital blemish while the overall shift of the image is due to solar rotation. As the Sun is now approaching the active part of its 11 year cycle, similar single jets are seen every week or so. But the appearance of these three widely separated jets at once is considered an unlikely coincidence and is fueling current speculations about their origins.

這部建構自攝於1998年7月7日的2張X射線照片之動畫，呈現一個精采事件 - 3道與太陽的活躍區有關、幾乎同時出現的噴流。 這2張照片是由軌道上陽光號衛星（Yohkoh）的軟X-射線望遠鏡所拍攝的，拍攝的時間相隔數個小時。 它們以"負片"方式呈現，較深的顏色代表源自太陽表面的日冕及活躍區的較強烈X-射線。 這些照片清楚呈現了二道彎曲、會發出X-射線輻射的熾熱電漿噴流，其中之在太陽的赤道上方，另一道在赤道下方。 出現在照片中上方鄰近噴流的垂直的條紋，是數位化所產生的瑕疵，然而整體影像的偏移則是因太陽旋轉所致。 因為太陽目前接近11年周期的活躍期，每星期都可以見到類似的單噴流。 但是這種三個相隔甚遠的噴流會同時出現，咸認不會是巧合，目前各種的起源假說紛傳。