Another great image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) of the solar event on August 1, 2010 resulting in two coronal mass ejections (CMSs) launched in Earth’s direction.
On August 1st, almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun erupted in a tumult of activity. There was a C3-class solar flare (white area on upper left), a solar tsunami (wave-like structure, upper right), multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more. This multi-wavelength (211, 193 & 171 Angstrom) extreme ultraviolet snapshot from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows the sun’s northern hemisphere in mid-eruption. Different colors in the image represent different gas temperatures ranging from 1 to 2 million degrees K.
Image Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA