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False-Color Image

An image in which colors are assigned to represent specific wavelengths of light—often outside the visible range—to highlight physical processes or chemical compositions in astronomical objects.

Source: hubblesite.org

APODs including "False-Color Image"

The Sun's Surface in 3D

24/06/2003

The Sun's Surface in 3D
Image Credit: NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

How smooth is the Sun? The new Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, deployed in the Canary Islands only last year, allows imaging of objects less than 100-km across on the Sun's surface. When pointed toward the Sun's edge, surface objects now begin to block each other, indicating true three-dimensional information. Close inspection of the image reveals much vertical information, including spectacular light-bridges rising nearly 500-km above the floor of sunspots near the top of the image. Also visible in the above false-color image are hundreds of bubbling granules, each about 1000-km across, and small bright regions known as faculas.