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On June 7,
the Sun unleashed
only a medium sized solar flare as rotation carried
active regions
of sunpots toward the solar limb.
But that flare was followed by an astounding gush of magnetized
plasma seen erupting at the Sun's edge
in this extreme ultraviolet image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Spectacular movies
of the event follow the darker, cooler
plasma over a period of hours as
it rains down across a broad area of the Sun's surface,
arcing along otherwise invisible
magnetic field lines.
An associated coronal mass ejection,
a massive cloud of high energy
particles, was blasted in the general direction of the Earth and
may have already
triggered auroral activity after a glancing blow to
Earth's magnetosphere.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Astronomy Picture of the Day
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2011 June 10
The Sun Unleashed
NASA /
Goddard /
SDO AIA Team
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