When you purchase through tie on our site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .

The sun ’s acute brightness makes it insecure for us to get a detailed view of it by traditional means . So , for over 200 age , mankind have bank on different modes of photography to safely glimpse the nuances of our star . Now , a range of telescopes and imagers seize the details , the fierceness and the sweetheart of thesolar scheme ’s heart . Here are 15 of the most eye-popping examples .

1. The sun’s many colors

This iridescent orb is anultravioletimage of the Lord’s Day taken by theEuropean Space Agency ’s ( ESA ) Solar and Heliospheric Observatory ’s extreme ultraviolet telescope . The blue sky represents temperature more than 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit ( 1 million arcdegree Celsius ) , white-livered is 2.7 million F ( 1.5 million ascorbic acid ) and red is 3.6 million F ( 2 million C ) .

Related : Mysterious undulation of magnetics may excuse why the sun ’s atmosphere is hot than physicists thought potential

2. A violent ejection

This extreme ultraviolet image captures acoronal mass ejection(CME ) , which takes place when a cloud of highly magnetised blood plasma recrudesce from the sun , release the plasma and magnetic field into space . In this image , some of the solar filum fall down back to the sun while much of it escapes into space .

3. Burning rain

When million - level plasm in the sun ’s air cool , it begins to fall . The stunning stream of blood plasma rain down to the airfoil — captured here byNASA ’s Solar Dynamics Observatory ( SDO ) — is calledcoronal pelting . Related : Solar maximum could hit us harder and rather than we thought . How dangerous will the sun ’s chaotic peak be ?

4. Star loops

This image from Nov. 29 , 2020 , taken by NASA ’s SDO , display with stunning uncloudedness an colonnade of coronal loops . Coronal loops are " ropey curving chain of plasma that come along as discharge above the sun ’s surface , " consort to theUniversity Corporation for Atmospheric Research .

5. The quiet sun

The SDO observe the sun with a variety of instruments and in many unlike wavelengths . This image usher light at 171 angstroms , a wavelength often used to view the sun ’s atmosphere when it ’s quiet , when no solar flares or CMEs are happening .

6. The largest prominence

According to ESA , this solar gibbosity — a body structure of tangled magnetic - field lines that keep dense concentrations of solar plasm suspend above the sun ’s surface — is the large ever solar prominence catch in a undivided image of the entire solar disk .

7. A flurry of flares

This image is from a massive solar eruption in 2017 that included a mediumsolar flare , an acute CME and a hustle of solar gumptious particles . These up-and-coming atom can interact with Earth ’s magnetosphere and interfere with radio transmission . The explosions create a solar violent storm that interrupted radio transmission at high-pitched latitudes for three twenty-four hours .

8. Sun-o'-lantern

In October 2014 , the active neighborhood of the sun created the seasonally appropriate appearance of a jack - o'-lantern . The image immix wavelength of 171 and 193 A , which look as amber and icteric , to create an especially Halloween - y look .

9. Windy chasms

From this golden paradigm , we get a peep at twocoronal hole . These are the country thatappear darkin extreme ultraviolet radiation images , because they are cooler , less - dense regions than the environ plasma , and magnetically loose . It ’s from these regions that solar winds shower into the solar organization .

10. An ethereal opening

This ethereal image trance another coronal hole that grew to a monumental size of it in 2015 . The open magnetic area go halfway across the sun , meaning it was about 50 times the size of it of Earth .

11. The mystery heats up

These images show the sunshine in a variety of wavelength . They are arranged by temperature , from the 10,800 F ( 6,000 C ) surface of the sun to the 50 million F ( 10 million C ) outer ambience . scientist are still trying to understand why the sun ’s stunned ambience is so much hotter than the surface .

12.  A solar mosaic

This arresting position of our star is a mosaic made of smaller images from NuSTAR , a telescope that unremarkably stares deep into space in hunting of X - ray of light fromblack holesand supernovas . But it can capture small pieces of the sun , too . The blue - white regions tick the most energetic areas . The image also catch microflares , which heat up and feed in the large flares .

13. Hello, Venus

This simple icon of Venus ' passing in front of the sun , called a Venus transportation , is made all the more beautiful because it ’s so rare . Because of Earth ’s angle compass , Venus ' journeying wo n’t be seeable like this again until 2117 .

14. An intimate explosion

This stunning close - up captures a violent bang in 2012 . A long solar filament that had been suspend in the sunshine ’s ambiance explode into distance . The CME throw into outer space at 900 miles per second ( 1,450 kilometre per second ) .

15. The sun in full glory

This ESA image from 2022 is a mosaic of 25 images . It ’s one of the most detailed and comprehensive looks we ’ve ever had of the star next door .

Related : Sun ’s fiery surface revealed in amazing composite of 90,000 images

An ultraviolet image of the sun’s surface.

An ultraviolet image of the sun’s surface.

An eruption of highly magnetized plasma known as a coronal mass ejection.

An eruption of highly magnetized plasma known as a coronal mass ejection.

Coronal rain caused by plasma on the surface of the sun.

Coronal rain caused by plasma on the surface of the sun.

Close-up of an anemone solar eruption.

Close-up of an anemone solar eruption.

Close up view of the sun during low activity and no solar flares.

Close up view of the sun during low activity and no solar flares.

Solar Orbiter captures giant solar eruption.

Solar Orbiter captures giant solar eruption.

The bright flash of a solar flare captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

The bright flash of a solar flare captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Active regions of the sun create a jack-o-lantern like pattern.

Active regions of the sun create a jack-o-lantern like pattern.

Two emerging dark coronal holes

Two emerging dark coronal holes.

A dark coronal hole at the bottom of the sun

A dark coronal hole at the bottom of the sun.

Sequence of solar images taken at various wavelengths of ultraviolet light

Sequence of solar images taken at various wavelengths of ultraviolet light.

Active regions of the sun are shown with X-Ray imaging taken by NuSTAR

Active regions of the sun are shown with X-Ray imaging taken by the NuSTAR telescope.

Venus transit across the sun

Venus transit from Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Solar eruption close up

A solar filament flares up in a solar eruption.

Comprehensive mosaic of 25 images of the sun

A comprehensive mosaic of 25 images taken by Solar Orbiter.

a close-up image of a sunspot

An image of the sun with solar wind coming off of it

an image taken by the PUNCH satellites showing the moon with the sun blocked out by occulters

A photo of a volcano erupting at night with the Milky Way visible in the sky

An image of the sun during a solar flare

an image of a solar flare erupting from the sun

an image of a flare erupting from the sun

A close up image of the sun�s surface with added magnetic field lines

A photograph of the northern lights over Iceland in 2020.

A painting of a Viking man on a boat wearing a horned helmet

The sun in a very thin crescent shape during a solar eclipse

Paintings of animals from Lascaux cave

Stonehenge, Salisbury, UK, July 30, 2024; Stunning aerial view of the spectacular historical monument of Stonehenge stone circles, Wiltshire, England, UK.

A collage of three different robots

An illustration of a hand that transforms into a strand of DNA