PICK OF THE WEEK: Back-sided CME event

[SOHO]

The STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft caught this bright, substantial coronal mass ejection blast that emerged from the far side of the Sun, out of direct view from Earth...



More... (http://soho.nascom.nasa.gov/pickoftheweek/old/25mar2011/)

[GlassSteagallfan]

No 'Thanks' button here, so "Thanks"

Are any of our other planets being hit with that CME?
How long before that region of the sun is aligned with earth?
Are EMV's still visible near the sun?

[noxon medem]

thanks SOHO, for a very nice backside view of the sun.

6422
Original hi-res images to be found at OP link

Do you, or anyone, know why the center of image
is blotted out with a black circle imposed.
(assume back of the sun does not look exactly like that)

Is it done mechanically to protect lens and/or medium
from burning out ?
In that case, it could be done more smoothly to
allow full center view of image (a gradient filter).

Is it in any other way related to photo-technical issues,
and a limitation on The STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft ?

Is it some sort of reference-matte, applied postcapture ?
In that case, please also publish the full, raw images.

Would be very interesting to see.
And the above interesting to know.

(Ps. I know SOHO is not a regular interacting member here)

[TimelessDimensions]

I think the sun had too many baked beans for breakfast :pound:

[MorningSong]

I do believe that "SOHO" and "NASA" are automatic bots.... no person behind the "nick" to answer your questions. (That's why there is no "Thanks" button, too.)

Try visiting the SOHO SDO site:

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/home.html

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/image-description.html