Solar Torrents of Fire
Exploring the Solar System
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4m 26s
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has brought us front row center to a show filled with radiant bursts and dark mysteries. SDO captures images of the sun in 10 different wavelengths, highlighting a range of surface temperatures. These show specific structures.... such as solar flares -- giant explosions of light and x-rays -- and coronal loops -- streams of solar material that travel up and down looping magnetic field lines. These field lines can launch prominence eruptions, when masses of solar material blast off the surface of the sun, often falling back in vast torrents of fire.
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