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USN 710511: U.S. Navy Balloonist Photographs Sunspots at 80,000 feet

USN 710511: U.S. Navy Balloonist Photographs Sunspots at 80,000 feet. This extremely clear close-up photograph of part of the surface of the Sun was made above most of Earth’s atmosphere from a U.S. Navy stratoscope balloon at 80,000 feet of 17 August 1959. The black spots consist of dark cores of relatively y cool gases emebbed in strong magnetic fields. The cores are surrounded by envelopes composed of wispi filaments of outward-moving warmer gases. The whole spot group is embedded in hot gases covering the entire surface of the Sun. These gases produced a magnetic storm and major disturbances in long range radio communications on Earth on 16 August 1959, the day before the balloon flight. The Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation sponsored the stratoscope flight, 17 August 1959. Photograph released on 4 September 1959. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
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Caption: USN 710511: U.S. Navy Balloonist Photographs Sunspots at 80,000 feet. This extremely clear close-up photograph of part of the surface of the Sun was made above most of Earth’s atmosphere from a U.S. Navy stratoscope balloon at 80,000 feet of 17 August 1959. The black spots consist of dark cores of relatively y cool gases emebbed in strong magnetic fields. The cores are surrounded by envelopes composed of wispi filaments of outward-moving warmer gases. The whole spot group is embedded in hot gases covering the entire surface of the Sun. These gases produced a magnetic storm and major disturbances in long range radio communications on Earth on 16 August 1959, the day before the balloon flight. The Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation sponsored the stratoscope flight, 17 August 1959. Photograph released on 4 September 1959. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.
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  • Space Exploration
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  • Photograph
Wars & Conflicts
Navy Communities
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  • Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
Location of Archival Materials
  • National Museum of the U.S. Navy
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