NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Coronal mass ejections occur when massive solar explosions blast through the Sun's outer atmosphere and plow toward Earth at speeds of thousands of miles per second. The small white circle in the center of the image shows the size of the Sun. A study by scientists at the National Space Science and Technology Center is offering new insight on these solar storms and how to better predict them. This image was taken from the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment on the European Space Agency (ESA)/ Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

Image credit: ESA/SOHO

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