The Sun now
Image from the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT)
These SOHO images are automatically updated throughout the day.
If the images you see do not show today's date please refresh your page.
CCD Bake-out
If the image above shows 'CCD BAKEOUT', then this means EIT images are temporarily unavailable. In this case, there is nothing wrong with SOHO's EIT instrument. It is routinely taken offline every three months or so for a procedure known as 'bakeout' in order to maintain the performance of the instrument. The images will resume within 2-3 weeks.
The Sun's hot atmosphere today
See the bright twisted clouds of hot gas, revealing storminess, and the dark, calm regions called 'coronal holes'. These images, obtained with invisible ultraviolet light, give the scientists their routine weather maps of the Sun.
Occasionally a solar flare appears, as a small, intensely bright flash. Different colours denote various ultraviolet wavelengths, each emanating from gas at a particular temperature - orange, 80 000 degrees, blue 1 000 000 degrees, green 1 500 000 degrees and yellow 2 500 000 degrees.
Latest images from other SOHO instruments
These SOHO images are being automatically updated.
If the images you see do not show today's date please refresh your page.
Last update: 3 May 2011 | 
