INCREDIBLE photos have revealed fiery ripples and a space flare on the surface of the Sun in some of the clearest shots ever taken.
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy layered 150,000 individual pictures of the glowing ball of fire to convey the intricate stunning detail of the solar system’s largest star.
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He took to social media to share the series of photos, which he describes as “a detailed look at our star.”
Through his post, he explained that during the prior day, he snapped the images of the sun using a modified telescope with “extreme magnificent.”
“Combined, those photos allowed me to see the sun in incredible detail,” he continued.
“In fact, this image is 300 megapixels.”
That’s 30 times bigger than a normal 10 megapixel camera image.
Through a close-view of the images, “swirls and feather-type patterns can be seen by the human eye, alongside mysterious dark sunspots.”
Due to the photographic process, the dark spots in the images are actually not dark, but in actuality are shining high energy parts of the burning star.
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Although difficult, the process of capturing the image required a certain telescope with two filters, in order to avoid a fire, and the photographer losing their sight.
‘It isn’t until I am done processing an image that I actually see what it really looks like, and this was a very special one,’ Andrew said per reports.
‘I always get excited about photographing the sun, it is really interesting because it is always different.
‘While the moon is more of a benchmark of how clear the skies are, the sun is never boring and it was a very good day on the sun that day.’
The sun
The sun has a diameter of 1.39 million km.
At 4.5billion-years-old, it is the largest and only star in our solar system.
It is also 330,000 times the mass of the Earth.
Three quarters of the sun is made of hydrogen, followed by helium, oxygen, carbon, neon and iron.
At the core of the sun temperatures top 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.
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