--- title: "This Photo of the Sun Is so Absurdly Detailed That It Looks like a Living Organism" description: "Famed astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has truly outdone himself with his latest picture of the Sun, stitching together around 150,000 individual images." date: "2021-12-09" modified: "2021-12-09" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/photo-sun-living-organism" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" tags: - "astrophotographer" - "Sun" - "the digest" --- # This Photo of the Sun Is so Absurdly Detailed That It Looks like a Living Organism ![Famed astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has truly outdone himself with his latest picture of the Sun, stitching together around 150,000 individual images.]() *\Image: Getty Images\* ## Black Hole Sun Famed astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy has truly outdone himself with his latest picture of the Sun. McCarthy, who calls himself "just a normal guy with a telescope" on his [Instagram account](), stitched a whopping 150,000 images of the Sun together to form a massive 300 megapixel image he titled "Fire and Fusion." The result is a glorious swirling mess of hot gases that almost appear almost organism-like — an angry ball of energy that gave life to everything around us billions of years ago. What makes it all the more impressive was the fact that it was taken from a backyard, rather than by an orbital telescope or [space probe]() that had to travel almost 100 million miles to get up close. View this post on Instagram [A post shared by Andrew McCarthy (@cosmic\_background)]() ## Fire Starter Believe it or not, McCarthy risked a lot to get his shots. "Ordinarily, taking a telescope and pointing at the Sun would be incredibly dangerous," McCarthy [told *NPR*]() in a recent interview. "It can lead to blindness and potentially starting a fire." "So what I've done is I applied different filters within the telescope that only lets in a very narrow portion of that light, and that allows me to capture details on the sun that would be otherwise impossible," he added. To McCarthy, it's all about highlighting the wonder in ordinary life. "Sometimes, we take the beautiful things in our life for granted," he added. "We all see the Sun every single day." **READ MORE:** [We meet a man who photographs the sun]() \[*NPR*\] **More on the Sun:** *[This Photo of the Sun Is Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()