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SDO Watches Twisting Solar Material Over the Sun’s Surface

Solar material twists above the sun’s surface in this close-up captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 7-8, 2016, showcasing the turbulence caused by combative magnetic forces on the sun. This spinning cloud of solar material is part of a dark filament angling down from the upper left of the frame. Filaments are long, unstable clouds of solar material suspended above the sun’s surface by magnetic forces. SDO captured this video in wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, which is typically invisible to our eyes, but is colorized here in red for easy viewing.

Credits: NASA/SDO/Goddard Space Flight Center, Joy Ng

Download this video in HD formats from NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio

By Steele Hill and Sarah Frazier
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.