False-colour X-ray image of the Sun's corona, made by a telescope payload of a sounding rocket on 23 October 1987. This image was made in wavelengths
False-colour X-ray image of the Sun's corona, made by a telescope payload of a sounding rocket on 23 October 1987. This image was made in wavelengths of 171-175 Angstroms (1A = nanometres). Most of the X-rays were emitted by excited iron atoms in the Fe-IX and Fe-X emission lines, at a temperature of around 1 million Kelvin. The corona is the outermost part of the solar atmosphere, rising up to 75,000km above the Sun's surface, and is mainly made of slow-moving particles.
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Photo credit: © NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -ray, astronomy, corona, cosmology, image, science, solar, sun, xray
