A picture which shows the X-rays coming from the Sun looks very different from a normal photograph.
The left hand picture is a normal photograph of the Sun. It shows the visible light given out by the Sun. The X-ray photograph is on the right. It shows the X-rays given out by the Sun. With X-rays we can see the Sun's atmosphere. It is called the solar corona.
If you look at a movie of the solar corona you can see many large bright regions, but you can also see many small bright dots that wink on and off like fireflies at night. These are really called X-ray bright points, because they look like points and are bright in X-rays!
We can also see the corona if we look at ultraviolet light coming from the Sun. Here is an ultraviolet image of the corona taken by EIT on board SOHO The little bright dots on the Sun that appear all over are fireflies. The two large bright regions to the right of the picture are not fireflies, they are called active regions.
Click on the movie symbol below to see thousands of bright points.
When fireflies are viewed up close they appear to have wings. Below is an image of an X-ray photograph of a firefly taken from a telescope on a rocket.
Sometimes they appear as twisted tubes of glowing gas. Here is a photograph of the ultraviolet (UV) light coming from the Sun. It was taken by a solar satellite called TRACE
Sometimes fireflies get so twisted they explode and then disappear. The next movie shows this.
As a scientist, the questions which I am interested in answering are:
Before I can answer these questions I need to know: