Photo Gallery: Sun

Coronal Loops

Photograph courtesy NASA

Magnetism made visible: That describes virtually every feature on the sun, from sunspots to these soaring structures, called loops. Loops easily reach the height of ten Earths. Energy generated by the dynamics of smaller loops is likely the source of the solar corona's mysterious heat. The superheated gases that form the sun, mainly hydrogen and helium, exist in an electrified state called plasma. Below the surface, plasma can push and drag magnetic field lines. But when lines are strong enough to arc out, wildly conductive plasma follows.

Sunspot Loops

Photograph courtesy NASA

It may look wild, but this image of the solar surface, captured by a NASA satellite called TRACE in 2000, was described by scientists as "a quiet day on the sun." In other words, spectacular loops but no storms.

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Sun Storm

Photograph courtesy NASA/JPL

The sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft captured this snapshot of the development of a coronal mass ejection (CME), an explosive sun storm. It shows erupting filaments lifting off the active solar surface and blasting enormous bubbles of magnetic plasma into space. CMEs occur anywhere from once a week to two or more times a day, and they can profoundly influence space weather.

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Composite Sun

Photograph courtesy NASA/ESA

This SOHO image is in extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths, color-coded by temperature, with red showing the hottest. Why is the halo-like corona, visible from Earth only during a total eclipse, hundreds—even thousands—of times hotter than the sun's surface? That's one of the questions that keep scientists looking straight at the sun.

Aurora Magnetosphere

Photograph courtesy NASA

An aurora glows from the Earth's magnetosphere, as seen from the International Space Station. The spectacular light show was caused when a coronal mass ejection (CME), or a huge cloud of hot plasma from the sun, hit the Earth's magnetosphere.