hot solar atmosphere

solar fingerprints

how do we produce a spectrum?

how to make your own rainbow

the Fraunhofer Spectrum

the one million degree rainbow

atoms, ions and electrons

recognising the fingerprints

UV spectra from the Sun

what is the Sun made of?

gold in the Sun?

UV spectra from the Sun

These images were obtained by the CDS spectrometer on the SOHO spacecraft. They show the ultraviolet light emitted by different elements, which are at different temperatures. You can see the edge of the Sun as a diagonal from the middle top of each picture down to the bottom left hand comer. The loops of material in the Sun’s atmosphere begin and end on the Sun's surface, but extend high into the solar corona.

Incidentally, see that white spot in the oxygen image? That shows you the size of the Earth to the same scale. The structures we see in the Sun are very large!

Hey, what do the letters CDS stand for?

Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer
This is an instrument (spectrometer) for studying (diagnosing) the Sun’s atmosphere (corona). Maybe it should have been the SDC?!

Different temperature loops of ionised gas as seen by SOHO/CDS


helium 20,000°C	oxygen 250,000°C	neon 400,000°C


calcium 630,000°C	magnesium 1,000,000°C	iron 2,000,000°C



	back to top