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> The Sun seen in ultraviolet by Soho. July 1st 2002.

The Sun seen in ultraviolet by Soho. July 1st 2002.

author: Nasa/ESA/Soho/Eit/Novapix

reference: a-sol02-01011

Image Size 300 DPI: 21 * 19 cm

A beautiful loop of magnetic energy large enough to encompass 40 Earth's, was spotted by NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Blasting off the Sun around 9:19 am EDT, the loop, or 'prominence' traps hot gas and typically reaches 107,000 degrees F - considerably cooler than the Sun's atmosphere of 1 million degrees. Scientists said that if the eruption of the prominence had been aimed toward Earth, it could have disturbed our magnetosphere resulting in auroras and other space weather activity.

Keywords for this photo:

2002 - ASTRONOMY - GLOBAL VIEW - PROMINENCE - SOHO - SOLAR FLARE - STAR - SUN - ULTRAVIOLET - UV -