The Sun is presently going through a solar minimum , a period in its 11 - year cycle when it has less activity and few sunspots . But hushed does n’t imply completely uneventful and our principal can still treat us to some pretty impressive " fireworks " .
Just last week , a region on the Sun ’s surface was plate to not one but two consecutivebursts of plasmaover the class of 18 hours . In the images collected by NASA ’s Solar Dynamics Observatory , we were treat to a beautiful display of bright coils stretching from the Sun ’s photosphere into place . These purl ribbons are raise by the intense magnetic fields create in the interior of the star .
The arches are charismatic domain lines , which behave in a similar way to the case illustrated in many school using a magnet , a firearm of paper , and branding iron filing . But instead of iron filing , you have the hot blood plasma that shit up the Sun and debase for thousands of kilometre .
The images and video have a picture of the Earth for musical scale and to really put affair in view . The blowup is vast – and yet by the Sun ’s standard , it ’s not that telling . The bursts are actually on the minor side . And that ’s not a forged affair .
“ It ’s exciting to see these variety of solar bam , even while the Sun is guide toward a minimum of activity , ” solar physicist Dr Miho Janvier , from Université Paris - Sud , secern IFLScience .
" There is nothing out of the average , but ordinary is actually what we need : Studying eruptions during maximum prevents us from being able to separate the different processes fall out at the same prison term because of the complexity / numbers of erupting region during this period . During quiet activity periods , eruption from simpler area allow for us with the possibleness of investigating what are the fundamental mechanisms at heart . ”
The Solar Dynamics Observatory collect the series of images using its Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment . The images were then stitched together into a video that usher both salvo . There is about a second in the telecasting where the filmdom goes black due to our satellite photobombing the observation . The spacecraft , which is in a geosynchronous orbit , was proceed behind Earth at the time .
