Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: A wind from the Sun blows through our Solar System. The behaviour of comet tails as they flapped and waved in this interplanetary breeze gave astronomers the first hint of its existence. Streaming outward at 250-400 miles/second, electrons and ions boiling off the Sun's incredibly hot but tenuous corona account for the Solar Wind - now known to affect the Earth and other planets along with voyaging spacecraft. Rooted in the Solar Magnetic Field, the structure of the corona is visible extending a million miles above the Sun's surface in this composite image from the EIT and UVCS instruments onboard the SOHO spacecraft. The dark areas, known as coronal holes, represent the regions where the highest speed Solar Wind originates.