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View Full Version : Taking a picture of the Sun . . . at night



Jacie
10/13/2010, 02:21 PM
Sounds like a Steven Wright joke.

However, some fellows in Japan managed to do it . . .

http://newhumanist.org.uk/2402/chowns-cosmos-the-sun-at-night

Ike
10/13/2010, 02:26 PM
I know a guy that worked on Super-K for a while. It's pretty cool stuff.

Chuck Bao
10/13/2010, 02:37 PM
Very interesting article, Jacie. And, I very much like hearing that all is well with our sun.

StoopTroup
10/13/2010, 02:46 PM
Nuetrinos? Isn't that the stuff nutella is made from?

http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2010/02/25/1267141166-nutella.jpg

Boomer.....
10/13/2010, 03:16 PM
What about the core of the Earth? Would it not give off an image?

Howzit
10/13/2010, 03:22 PM
It's not producing neutrinos.

Hey Ike, why is it that normal sunlight takes 30,000 years to go from the core to the surface of the sun?

Ike
10/13/2010, 03:32 PM
It's not producing neutrinos.

Hey Ike, why is it that normal sunlight takes 30,000 years to go from the core to the surface of the sun?

The sun is quite dense. There's a lot of material in between the core, where the nuclear fusion takes place and the surface. That material absorbs and re-emits the photons. The re-emission is in a random direction, so it's essentially a random walk problem to determine how long it takes that energy (on average) to make it to the surface of the sun.

Neutrinos however interact only very weakly with all that material, and most of them just pass right through it.

Ike
10/13/2010, 03:35 PM
What about the core of the Earth? Would it not give off an image?

For neutrinos to be produced, fusion (or fission) has to be taking place. While the core of the earth is hot, (about as hot as the surface of the sun), it's not nearly hot enough to get fusion to happen (which in the sun, only happens in the core). There isn't much fission down there either.

I Am Right
10/13/2010, 08:43 PM
Use Smoked glass