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SDO Sees Active Solar Regions Blossoming

SDO image of solar active regions from Oct. 27, 2015
A pair of active regions began to rotate into the view of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on Oct. 27, 2015.

A pair of active regions began to rotate into the view of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on Oct. 27, 2015. Their towering magnetic field lines bloomed into a dazzling display of twisting arches, with some of the field lines connecting between the neighboring active regions. Active regions—the source of most explosive solar events—appear as bright tangles of light when viewed in extreme ultraviolet light, which is invisible to our eyes. These images were taken in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 171 angstroms and colorized in gold.

Image credit: NASA/SDOText credit: Steele Hill and Sarah Frazier, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.