Solar activity? Or Dark Phoenix rising? You decide. (screenshot of video)
All signs point to YES that Our First Lady of X-Men, Jean Grey, lives … if the latest video from the (SDO) is to be believed.
SDO captured some on April 21, 2015: a wing-like prominence eruption from the sun, taken over a six-hour period.
The resemblance is uncanny. Image from X-Men Phoenix Endsong (Earth-616.) Copyright Marvel Comics, used under Comic Single Panel Fair Use licensing
Now, scientists *claim* this is a solar prominence captured in various wavelengths of the extreme ultraviolet, including 171 (shown in gold in the video) and 304 (shown in orange in the video) angstroms. The X-Men fans among us, however, know that this is clearly a sign the Phoenix Force is in action. Ahem.
In all seriousness, SDO launched on February 11, 2010 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on a mission to study the Sun and its affect on space weather.
An diagram of the of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) with instrument locations highlighted. (NASA)
The spacecraft has three instruments on board: the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), and the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE).
The . The instrument was created at University of Colorado, Boulder, where EVE mission operations still take place. And, awesomely enough, the mission’s Principal Investigator is .
Watch this incredible video from NASA and see The Phoenix rise.
