A Truly Unique Gift
Sun Prints
Capture the mesmerising beauty of the sun at specific moments in time. The brainchild of data scientist Ian Calvert, these incredible sun images are meticulously crafted to reflect the sun's unique position and radiance on a day and time you choose.
All ages
Price: £35
All ages
Price: £35
The Sun gives off light in many different colours, like a rainbow! But when we look at it, we mostly see yellow light because the Sun's brightest light is in the colour yellow. These pictures show you all the different colours. Ian uses data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft to create these special pictures just for you!
The SDO was launched in 2010 and it enables scientists to collect distinct wavelengths of light, showing solar material at different temperatures. Please note SDO data is only available from April 2010, this means we can't create images of the sun before to this date.
Our prints are on high quality matte paper and come in 12 inches x 12 inches format. For larger formats, get in touch!
The SDO was launched in 2010 and it enables scientists to collect distinct wavelengths of light, showing solar material at different temperatures. Please note SDO data is only available from April 2010, this means we can't create images of the sun before to this date.
Our prints are on high quality matte paper and come in 12 inches x 12 inches format. For larger formats, get in touch!
More from NASA, about Observing the Sun
Video credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Ian Calvert
Data Scientist
Growing up as the child of two scientists, my home was filled with science texts, images of the cosmos, and makeshift experiments. This environment ignited a lifelong love of science that I am now sharing with my own children. When my son was born, I wanted to commemorate the moment in a way that was not only visually beautiful but also served as a launching point for conversations about space and physics. This desire led to these Sun prints, and soon after, friends started requesting their own prints and then as gifts for others. Now, thanks to The Remarkablz, I get to share them with you too.
What the colours mean
RedThis colour shows us the outer layer of the Sun, the chromosphere. You can see the places where there are cooler and denser streams of solar plasma.
Wavelength: 304 angstroms
Temperature: 50,000 K (90,000 F)
PurpleHighlights the outer atmosphere of the Sun - the corona. This wavelength shows hotter, magnetically active regions in the sun's corona.
Wavelength: 211 angstroms
Temperature: 2 million K (3.6 million F)
OrangeHighlights the outer atmosphere of the Sun as well as hot flare plasma.
Wavelength: 193 angstroms
Temperature: 1.25 million K (2.25 million F)
BlueThis colour measures the hottest material in a flare. It measures extremely hot temperatures as well as cool plasmas.
Temperature: 10 million K (18 million F)
GreenThis highlights regions of the corona during a solar flare. It measures extremely hot temperatures around 6 million Kelvin.
Wavelength: 94 angstroms
Temperature: 6 million K (10.8 million F)- Our sun is a massive star at the center of our solar system. It generates energy through nuclear reactions. This energy becomes sunlight that reaches us in about 8 minutes.
The Sun emits light in a number of wavelengths, some are visible to the human eye, some aren't. The light we see from the Sun appears white, but it's actually made up of a lot of different colours. Each colour corresponds to light waves of different lengths. For example, red light has a longer wavelength, while blue light has a shorter wavelength. Wavelength is important because it helps us understand and classify different types of light.
The chromosphere is a layer of the Sun's atmosphere that lies above the photosphere (the visible surface of the Sun) and below the corona (the outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere). It's a thin layer of plasma that extends for about 2,000 km (1,200 mi.) above the surface of the Sun. The chromosphere gets its name from the Greek word 'chroma', which means colour. This is because the chromosphere appears bright red. The red colour is due to the hydrogen in the Sun emitting a reddish-coloured light at high temperatures.
Kelvin is a unit of temperature. It is commonly used to measure very low or very high temperatures, such as the temperature of liquid nitrogen or the temperature of the sun. To convert temperatures from degrees Celsius to Kelvin, you add 273.15. So, for example, 0 degrees Celsius (the freezing point of water) is 273.15 Kelvin.
It's named after the physicist William Thomson, also known as Lord Kelvin.
It's named after the physicist William Thomson, also known as Lord Kelvin.
The Sun's corona is the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere. Even though the Sun's surface is already really hot, the corona is even hotter. The corona also shoots out something called solar wind.
Solar wind is a stream of charged particles that flows outward from the Sun into space. It's like a breeze blowing away from the Sun, but instead of air, it's made up of tiny charged particles, mainly electrons and protons. It can cause phenomena like the northern lights (auroras).
Plasma is the fourth state of matter, in addition to solid, liquid, and gas. When a gas gets very, very hot, some or all its atoms split into electrons and ions. This mix of free electrons and ions is what we call plasma.
