Astronomy Tuesday

(Image credit: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination))

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day today featured one of Alan Friedman's brilliant portraits of our sun. The texture in these photos always astonishes me; I know those patterns are made by roiling, boiling plumes of gas thousands of miles long, but in the photograph they look so small and innocent, almost dainty, like a faded flower pattern on an old dress, or peach fuzz.

Or the orangey hide of a Texas longhorn.