Real or Fake?

With the solar storms of recent - is this real or fake? Hint - I live near Kitt Peak Nat. Observatory

I know another trick question. I would say the sun might be real but the flares are not. The round flares just don't look quite tied to the surface and DOF. That's great if they will let you attach your cam to capture the universe.

This interpretation of the sun by the common citizen will be interpreted as fake although it may be one of the ways scientist study the sun. I have seen pictures of the yellow sphere before but not with flares.

I think it looks fake too but then have no idea what filters and mechanisms are in place so I wouldn't be surprised if it's completely real!

Cue ball.

dirty ping pong ball?

I was able to get closer

Alright then... Some interesting responses... here is the answer:

I really wanted to see if I could. without any special or additional AE plugins, be able to create this - and this is what I got. Hence, it is fake, but was derived from looking at many images gathered at Kitt Peak. Kitt Peak has the largest solar telescope in the world. And basically they view the sun on a very large white table where the original, non electronic image is projected. For me, it was just a self-challenge to see if I could even get close as I said with AE. Obviously it seemed to work. Thanks for the feedback.

You need one of those solar flares to come out of the sun and head directly to Earth. First the gamma flash followed a second later by the lethal flare.

You asked for it...you got it: