Transiting sunspots, 12-31-2006 12:30 EST.
Color image courtesy of SOHO, the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory, a project of international collaboration between ESA and NASA to study the Sun from its deep core to the outer corona and the solar wind.

SOHO was launched on December 2, 1995. There are twelve instruments on board SOHO and were provided by European and American scientists. NASA was responsible for the launch and is now responsible for mission operations. Large radio dishes around the world which form NASA's Deep Space Network are used for data downlink and commanding. Mission control is based at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The color image was taken by the MDI/SOI(Michelson Doppler Imager/Solar Oscillations Investigation) instrument within one hour of my images (monochrome).