The Sun as God

Sun Gone Wild: NASA Releases Highlight Reel of Solar Flares (Video) 2011 04 23 From: YahooNews.com

Look what the sun’s been up to over the past year. This spectacular highlight reel of videos shot by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) commemorates the year anniversary of when NASA revealed the first images taken by the spacecraft.

Over the past year, the sun has gone from one of the most docile periods in many years to the point where you might say that all hell is breaking loose. That’s what makes this video so compelling.

Says NASA: The Solar Dynamics Observatory mission has returned unprecedented images of solar flares, eruptions of prominences, and the early stages of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this video are some of the most beautiful, interesting, and mesmerizing events seen by SDO during its first year. To get an idea of the scale we’re talking about, take a look at this:

NASA | SDO Year One (YouTube): April 21, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) First Light press conference, where NASA revealed the first images taken by the spacecraft.; In the last year, the sun has gone from its quietest period in years to the activity marking the beginning of solar cycle 24. SDO has captured every moment with a level of detail never-before possible. The mission has returned unprecedented images of solar flares, eruptions of prominences, and the early stages of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). In this video are some of the most beautiful, interesting, and mesmerizing events seen by SDO during its first year.

In the order they appear in the video the events are:

Prominence Eruption from AIA in 304 Angstroms on March 30, 2010
Cusp Flow from AIA in 171 Angstroms on February 14, 2011
Prominence Eruption from AIA in 304 Angstroms on February 25, 2011
Cusp Flow from AIA in 304 Angstroms on February 14, 2011
Merging Sunspots from HMI in Continuum on October 24-28, 2010
Prominence Eruption and active region from AIA in 304 Angstroms on April 30, 2010
Solar activity and plasma loops from AIA in 171 Angstroms on March 4-8, 2011
Flowing plasma from AIA in 304 Angstroms on April 19, 2010
Active regions from HMI in Magnetogram on March 10, 2011
Filament eruption from AIA in 304 Angstroms on December 6, 2010
CME start from AIA in 211 Angstroms on March 8, 2011
X2 flare from AIA in 304 Angstroms on February 15, 2011

When you look at a video of the sun, you’re looking at the origin of all life. As Carl Sagan told us, "The Earth -- and every living thing -- are made of star stuff."

my conjecture

I have probably missed my calling as a heliophysicist - a solar scientist. Ever since I read The Electric Universe (interview), I came to have a profound respect for the mysteries of the Sun. I learned that plasma has interesting electric and magnetic properties that enable the creation of very complex interacting structures - which could be arranged in such a way as to form a 'plasma machine' - an actual computer made of plasma. Then I got to thinking that for all we know, the Sun is actually an intelligent entity - a super-organism whose 'biology' is not chemical, but plasmic. Many people already think of the Earth as a superorganism - Gaia - so why not? This may be why most all ancient religions around the world worship the Sun as God - could it be that these are not actually primitive myths, but literally true? I cannot imagine how creatures like us could possibly conceive of such a being, much less communicate with one.

This idea of a stellar consciousness was put forward in the film 'Solaris' (2002) - a remake of the original Russian film of the same name (1972). I highly recommend both if you have not seen them, although the first one is in Russian. --Infomaniac 17:14, 25 April 2011 (PDT)