Astrophotographers Andrew McCarthy and Jason Guenzel teamed up to create an incredible 140-megapixel image of the Sun; the composite photo shows the star’s burning surface in rich detail as well as a plasma “hurricane” 14 times the height of planet Earth.

McCarthy spoke about the venture to My Modern Met.

They had long admired each other’s work and were looking for an opportunity to work together. “He specializes in extracting incredible detail from raw data while my forte is creating large mosaic images of the Sun,” McCarthy said. “By combining our strengths we were able to create an incredible project that pushes the boundaries of what is possible with amateur gear,” he added.

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To create the final image, McCarthy took about 200,000 photos of the Sun. Over five days, he and Guenzel processed the data and composed the photo. The photo, now known as “Fusion of Helios,” uses 90,000 of McCarthy’s photos as well as a 2017 eclipse photo taken by Guenzel.

“Capturing the Sun takes a bit of skill because of the nature of the undertaking,” McCarthy explained. “The extreme range of color tones present in the various layers of the solar atmosphere means that any kind of traditional photography will not be able to reveal them all. For this reason, some creative interpretation is required,” he emphasized.

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“In this case, we added the solar corona and the stars behind, which would normally be invisible except in the event of a solar eclipse. Although the addition was an artistic choice, great care was taken to transform Jason’s photo of the 2017 eclipse to geometrically conform to that day’s solar activity; a photo from NASA’s SOHO was used as a reference observatory of the Sun)” he clarified.

“The result is a combination of science and art; and my favorite project I’ve ever been a part of,” he concluded.