Lovely Loops

The upper one of a pair of new, solar active regions that just rotated into view of SDO offered a beautiful profile view of cascading loops spiraling above it (Jan. 15-16, 2012) following a solar flare eruption. These loop structures are made of superheated plasma, just one of which is the size of several Earths. With its ability to capture the Sun in amazing detail, SDO observed it all in extreme ultraviolet light.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

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Comments and faves

  1. ★

    Kevin, peet-astn, Todd Hurley (Todd_H), peru2U., and 244 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. peet-astn (16 months ago | reply)

    stunning, amazing, beautiful.

  3. peru2U. (16 months ago | reply)

    Oh, I would fave this thousand times. Its so beautiful!!

  4. Wind Watcher (16 months ago | reply)

    Impressive energy burst! Any impact to the NASA Messenger probe in orbit near Mercury?

  5. Ed_Winchester (16 months ago | reply)

    Beautiful shot.

  6. dodagp (16 months ago | reply)

    Bright capture !!!

  7. Ron Vol. [deleted] (16 months ago | reply)

    Awesome stuff.

  8. OnceAndFutureLaura (16 months ago | reply)

    stunning.

  9. RomanGlass* (16 months ago | reply)

    amazing..... just amazing and so powerful

  10. doomsdaydignan (16 months ago | reply)

    How long does a Loop last?
    From it's start till end?

  11. DiamantThomy (16 months ago | reply)

    Cool

  12. raffaphoto© (16 months ago | reply)

    Meraviglioso!

  13. stew says ישעיה טשערויין (16 months ago | reply)

    wow

  14. rodbotic (16 months ago | reply)

    wow!

  15. @lbert O. (16 months ago | reply)

    Gorgeous!

  16. Tom Mrt (16 months ago | reply)

    Amazing!

  17. D. Didier (16 months ago | reply)

    nasa has the best camera in the world - i swear :)

  18. Regina1874 (16 months ago | reply)

    Vejam uma pequena amostra de grandeza de Deus!!!! Uaaauuuu!!!!!

  19. Brucsar (16 months ago | reply)

    In the picture you can see lots of animal images such as birds, cats, bears... awesome!!! i didn't realize before but seeing closer i could see... wonderful!!!

  20. Daniele Protti (16 months ago | reply)

    Wow :D

  21. lillirod (16 months ago | reply)

    Amazing!

  22. Marvin Trill (16 months ago | reply)

    Just amazing.

  23. 5% Speculation Tax* to Keep the World Going Round! [deleted] (16 months ago | reply)

    www.flickr.com/photos/23179744@N03/6742016215 /in/faves-li...

    *it definitively is biologic! ... :-))

  24. Julie Delias (16 months ago | reply)

    I'm in love of this !

  25. acmelucky777 (16 months ago | reply)

    Interesting image!

  26. GuruMagazine (14 months ago | reply)

    Thank you for releasing your photo under the Creative Commons license - we've used it in issue four of Guru, a free digital science / lifestyle magazine (back cover). gurumagazine.org

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