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The Sun
See the Sun in Extreme Ultraviolet Light

The Sun at 171 angstrom
The Sun at 171 Å.
  The Sun at 195 angstrom
The Sun at 195 Å.
  The Sun at 304 angstrom
The Sun at 304 Å.
These three colorful NASA images of the Sun were recorded on the same day by the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) aboard the spacecraft SOHO, which is in orbit around our star.

Click any one of the images to see a larger version.

The wavelength of the light seen by the spacecraft in each photo is measured in angstroms. Angstrom is abbreviated with the symbol Å.

Angstrom is a unit of length equal to 10-8 cm. That's one-hundredth of a millionth of a centimeter. An angstrom is around the size of an atom.

The human eye can't see ultraviolet light. Thus, NASA changed the colors of these images so we can see them. To sort the images visually, NASA scientists assigned colors to EIT images recorded at particular extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths. They rendered the images in these colors: Here are some NASA definitions of terms relating to the labels the space agency placed on the photos: Learn more about the Sun:
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