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NASA | GSFC | SDO | 2013 Jan 03
A solar eruption gracefully rose up from the sun on December 31, 2012, twisting and turning. Magnetic forces drove the flow of plasma, but without sufficient force to overcome the sun’s gravity much of the plasma fell back into the sun.
The Earth is superimposed on this image to give readers a sense of the scale. The length of the eruption extends about 160,000 miles out from the Sun. With Earth about 7,900 miles in diameter, this relatively minor eruption is about 20 times the diameter of our planet.
This four–hour event occurred from 10:20 am to 2:20 pm EST and was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in extreme ultraviolet light shown here at a high cadence of an image every 36 seconds.
Image Credit: NASA/SDO/Steele Hill
Video Credit: NASA/SDO
Solar Ballet
SDO Gallery | 2013 Jan 07
A solar eruption gracefully rose up above the Sun, twisted and turned in a sinuous manner. Most of the plasma mass fell back into the Sun (Dec. 31, 2012). The four-hour event was taken in extreme ultraviolet light and is shown here at a high cadence of an image every 30 seconds. Magnetic forces were driving the flow of plasma, but without sufficient force to overcome the Sun's gravity. The overall level of solar activity remains lower than expected, since the Sun is presumably still heading towards its maximum activity level later this year.
This still solar eruption has an Earth superimposed on it to give a sense of the scale of these kind of events. The length of the eruption as shown extends about 160,000 miles out from the Sun. With Earth about 7900 miles in diameter, this relatively minor eruption is about 20 times the diameter of Earth. << Previous SDO