Pictures of the Sun, great photos of our sun

1. Core. The Sun's nuclear "furnace," where fusion reactions initially combine hydrogen atoms to produce helium, yielding energy in the process.
2. Radiative Zone. Energy moves through a surrounding envelope of gas toward the Sun's surface.
3. Convection Zone. Big "bubbles" of hot gas transport energy to the surface.
4. Photosphere. The Sun's visible surface. Because of its high temperature, it glows yellow.
5. Sunspot. A magnetic "storm" on the Sun's surface.
6. Prominence. An eruption of hot gas that can extend thousands of miles into space.
7. Corona. The Sun's outer atmosphere, which is heated by the magnetic field to millions of degrees.

Very nice image of an eruptive prominence.

Another nice image of a solar flaring event. Image taken on 06 June 1991

This picture of the Sun was taken on January 24, 1992. The image shows the Sun at X-ray wavelengths and it was recorded by the Soft X-ray Telescope on the Yohkoh (which means "Sunbeam" in Japanese) satellite. The bright areas are where the Sun's magnetic fields are strong enough to trap the very hot gases in the corona of the Sun.