Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 September 21 [2]The picture shows the Sun rising over a hill in Perter, Spain, complete with sunspots and foreground trees. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. Sun Spot Hill Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Jordi Coy Explanation: Is this giant orange ball about to roll down that tree-lined hill? No, because the giant orange ball is actually [4]the Sun. Our Solar System's [5]central star was captured rising beyond a hill on Earth twelve days ago complete with a delightfully detailed foreground. The Sun's disk showed [6]five sunspots, quite a lot considering that during the [7]solar minimum in solar activity of the past few years, most days showed [8]no spots. A close look at the hill -- [9]Sierra del [10]Cid in Perter, [11]Spain -- reveals not only silhouetted pine trees, but silhouetted people -- [12]by coincidence three brothers of the photographer. The trees and brothers were about 3.5-[13]kilometers away during the morning of the well-planned, single-exposure image. A dark filter muted the usually [14]brilliant Sun and brought up great detail on the lower [15]sunspots. Within a few minutes, [16]the Sun rose far above the hill, while within a week, the [17]sunspots rotated around the Sun, out of view. The captured scene, however, is now [18]frozen in time for all to enjoy. Tomorrow's picture: half day __________________________________________________________________ [19]< | [20]Archive | [21]Submissions | [22]Index | [23]Search | [24]Calendar | [25]RSS | [26]Education | [27]About APOD | [28]Discuss | [29]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [30]Robert Nemiroff ([31]MTU) & [32]Jerry Bonnell ([33]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [34]Specific rights apply. [35]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [36]ASD at [37]NASA / [38]GSFC & [39]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2109/SunSpotHill_Coy_2358.jpg 3. https://www.facebook.com/jordilopezphotography 4. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210628.html 5. https://www.nasa.gov/sun 6. https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=10&month=09&year=2021 7. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/solarmin-max.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191114.html 9. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_del_Cid 10. https://youtu.be/N284B24W_Xo 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain 12. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/02/07/10/24434164-7977935-image-a-51_1581071874370.jpg 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200322.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180926.html 15. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-activity/en/ 16. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun/overview/ 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap141022.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150412.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210920.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 23. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 28. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210921 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210922.html 30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 31. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 32. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 33. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 35. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 36. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 37. https://www.nasa.gov/ 38. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 39. http://www.mtu.edu/