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Photograph by NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
July 21, 2011
The seething turmoil in our sun's atmosphere is captured in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched in 2010 to better understand solar activity and its impact on Earth. In this colorized view (NASA color-codes SDO images to represent different wavelengths of light), bright coronal loops arc between regions of intense magnetic activity, while cooler, darker filaments hang suspended in the sun's magnetic field. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
August 9, 2011
An X-class flare, the most powerful in NOAA's classification system, overloads a sensor on the Solar Dynamics Observatory. With the solar cycle expected to peak in 2013, more flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) may be headed earthward. -
Photograph by Martin Stojanovski
A direct hit by a massive CME could shut down power lines, like these in Macedonia.
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Illustration by Royal Astronomical Society/Photo Researchers, Inc.
September 1, 1859
Astronomer Richard Carrington was drawing sunspots—regions of intense magnetic activity on the sun's surface—when two brilliant bursts of light (A and B) suddenly appeared within one large group. Hours later Earth was hit by the most powerful geomagnetic storm on record. -
Photograph by Bjørn Jørgenson
January 24, 2012
An aurora flutters above the Sommarøy bridge on the island of Kvaløy in northern Norway during a week of intense solar activity. Auroras appear when charged solar particles strike atmospheric gases, lighting them up like neon in a tube. Most common near the Poles, auroras also occur in lower latitudes during strong solar storms. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
June 7, 2011
The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a coronal mass ejection (at four o'clock in this and the following two images) using different wavelengths of light that reflect temperatures in layers of the sun's atmosphere. Temperatures in the relatively cool chromosphere (above) are a mere 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
June 7, 2011
Temperatures in the relatively cool chromosphere rise rapidly to almost two million degrees in the corona above it. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
June 7, 2011
Why the sun's atmosphere gets hotter farther from its surface remains a mystery. Regions of the corona can rise to more than ten million degrees during solar eruptions. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
September 22, 2011
Plasma loops wide enough to encompass many Earths are caught in profile on the edge of the sun, while a wavelike prominence above the loops slings charged solar particles into space. Scientists tune in to solar sound waves to detect active regions days before they bubble up to the surface. -
Image by Walt Feimer, NASA GSFC Conceptual Image Lab and Stereo
November 11, 2010
Twin NASA spacecraft STEREO A and B provided the first nearly complete view of the solar surface. By June 2011 the gap had been filled in. Space-weather-watchers can now see active regions as they develop on the far side of the sun, allowing them to more precisely forecast the likely paths of CMEs. This improved imaging could mean a crucial margin of warning the next time the sun sends a violent storm toward Earth. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
July 21, 2011
Ionized iron heated to 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit appears to glow yellow in a colorized image using extreme ultraviolet light. Strong magnetic forces propel tangled loops of solar plasma through the sun's atmosphere. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
August 4, 2011
A brilliant solar flare, along with a coronal mass ejection (dark cloud just above the central flare) erupts toward Earth. This flare registered at the upper end of the M-class, which ranks just below the X-class, the strongest solar flares in NOAA's classification system. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
September 22, 2011
An X-class flare and a strong CME erupt from a magnetically active area rotating into view in the sun's corona. If directed at our planet, extreme solar storms—occurring only once every few centuries or so—would light up skies all over Earth with colorful auroras and potentially cause long-lasting blackouts. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
November 2, 2011
Burning bright in another extreme ultraviolet image, magnetically active regions rotate into the view of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. -
Photograph by NASA SDO
June 21, 2011
Looking like a bright eye opening in the middle of the sun, a modest-size C-class flare and associated CME launch charged particles directly at Earth. Scientists who track space weather say coronal mass ejections like this one from the sun's middle longitudes are the most likely to strike our planet.
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