An extreme close-up of NOAA 12177 recorded on October 2, 2014 at Big Bear Solar Observatory using a narrow band Fabry-Perot filter (.08A) centered on the hydrogen alpha bandpass. This image was featured as NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day on February 17, 2015. In this interpretation, the image has been inverted and colorized. The original image data recorded by the 1.6 meter New Solar Telescope can be seen here. Big Bear Solar Observatory has produced some of the highest resolution data of our sun ever recorded - visit their gallery of images to see more. Many thanks to Claude Plymate, BBSO and NJIT for the opportunity to process this fabulous data.

February 5, 2015

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