EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET IMAGING TELESCOPE
MOST RECENT CHROMOSPHERE IMAGE

This image is a picture of the Sun taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on board the SOHO spacecraft. This particular image is of the chromosphere and is produced by the emission ofUV light by helium in the solar atmosphere. Helium emits this sort of light at a temperature of around 80,000 degrees.

Bright regions on the main body of the Sun are called active regions while wispy structures which protrude from the edges of the solar disk indicates cool dense chromospheric material (80,000 degrees) suspended in the hotter, more diffuse corona (2 million degrees). These structures are knows as prominences. The pock-marked appearance of the Sun at this temperature is due to the distribution of magnetic field across the solar surface and its effect on heating the solar gas solar above it.