XRT observes some beautiful hot plasma loops. Click the image to watch a movie of the activity or click here for the youtube link.
A Solar Summer Sendoff
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This X-ray movie, captured by the Hinode X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on June 7, 2025, shows Active Region (AR) 14100 rotating off the Sun’s limb. XRT uses X-rays to look into the Sun’s super-hot outer atmosphere, called the corona, revealing activity that’s invisible to the eye. Observed with the Be-thin filter, this view is sensitive to plasma heated to around 2–10 million degrees Celsius. Over the course of two hours (15:25–17:29 UT), you can see arching loops of hot plasma, shaped by the Sun’s magnetic fields, glowing as they release energy—some of it falling back toward the Sun under the pull of gravity, while some may be carried higher into the corona, helping to drive its extreme heat and dynamic behavior. This movie was created using an open-source Python notebook from the XRTpy documentation site. XRTpy is a community-built software library that makes it easier for scientists—and students!—to analyze Hinode/XRT data and explore the Sun using modern tools. As we soak up summer sunshine here on Earth, Hinode continues its mission in space—capturing the Sun’s dynamic beauty. Keywords: AR Tracking, Flare Filters: Thin_Be |
(Prepared by Joy Velasquez)
The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.
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