Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope Shows Sunspot Developing (NASA)
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Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) provides crystal-clear images of features on the sun's surface. This video shows a whirl of a new developing sunspot colliding with an existing spot that explodes into a major solar flare. The solar flare shown in this movie was captured on December 13, 2006. The flare produced high-energy protons that reached the Earth at the time of STS-116 Space Shuttle flight. The flare is shown in 3 different wavelengths.
