The "bubbling" surface of the Sun in 3D

Caption NASA originale" How smooth is the Sun? The new Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, deployed in the Canary Islands in 2002, allows imaging of objects less than 100-Km across on the Sun's surface. When pointed toward the Sun's edge, surface objects now begin to block each other, indicating true three-dimensional information. Close inspection of the image reveals much vertical information, including spectacular light-bridges rising nearly 500 Km above the floor of sunspots near the top of the image. Also visible in the above false-color image are hundreds of bubbling granules, each about 1000 Km across, and small bright regions known as "faculae".