A new video from NASA‘s Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a solar flare that erupted on the Sun’s surface on October 14th. The glowing plasma display stretches 100,000 miles long. To put this number in perspective, our dear Earth’s most stretched width is 7,926 miles across.
Located on the left side of the Sun, the active region was not facing Earth at the time, but it has since moved over the eastern limb of the Sun and will travel in that direction over the next 12 days.
Below is the latest image from HMI (Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager), one of SDO’s instruments. The photo shows the active region in its current state. Notice that the size of the region is comparable to that of the entire Earth.
On Oct. 4, SDO captured another minor eruption on the Sun that generated a graceful, fiery puff of solar material. The video was stitched together from imagery recorded over a 2.5-hour time period in which the camera snapped a photo every 15 seconds.
NASA launched its SDO mission in 2010 in order to better understand the Sun’s influence on Earth.
Images and video courtesy of NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
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