Sonnenprotuberanzen
1881-1882
Before modern astrophotography could capture the sun's fury, French astronomer Étienne Léopold Trouvelot used soft pastels to record these swirling, fiery red solar flares. Observed in 1870 and published in 1881, these 'protuberances' look less like scientific data and more like a psychedelic, alien forest reaching for the sky. Trouvelot was obsessed with capturing fleeting celestial events that early cameras missed, creating images that feel surprisingly modern and abstract. Ironically, while he gave us these breathtaking views of the cosmos, he is historically infamous for accidentally releasing the destructive gypsy moth into the wild in Massachusetts while trying to breed silk worms!
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