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Solar Fireworks: Sun Flare of July 3, 2013
Credit: NASA/SDO
The sun unleashed an M1.5-class solar flare (lower left) on July 3, 2013, a solar fireworks to the traditional Fourth of July holiday in the United States. [a href="http://www.space.com/21835-solar-flare-sun-fireworks-video.html">Read the Full Story]
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Sun Emits Mid-Level Flare
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an M5.7-class flare on May 3, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. EDT. This image shows light in the 131-angstrom wavelength, a wavelength of light that can show material at the very hot temperatures of a solar flare and that is typically colorized in teal.
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Prominence Eruption
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA
A burst of solar material leaps off the left side of the sun in what’s known as a prominence eruption. This image combines three images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured on May 3, 2013, at 1:45 pm EDT, just as an M-class solar flare from the same region was subsiding. The images include light from the 131-, 171- and 304-angstrom wavelengths.
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Gigantic Rolling Wave Captured on the Sun
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO
A coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from just around the edge of the sun on May 1, 2013, in a gigantic rolling wave. CMEs can shoot over a billion tons of particles into space at over a million miles per hour. This CME occurred on the sun’s limb and is not headed toward Earth.
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Full Year Composite of the Sun
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/S. Wiessinger
This image is a composite of 25 separate images spanning the period of April 16, 2012, to April 15, 2013. It uses the SDO AIA wavelength of 171 angstroms and reveals the zones on the sun where active regions are most common during this part of the solar cycle.
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Strong Solar Flare: April 11, 2013 - Full Disk
Credit: NASA/SDO
This full-disk view of the sun was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on April 11, 2013, during the strongest solar flare yet seen in 2013.
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Solar Eruption of March 12, 2013
Credit: NASA/SDO
This screenshot from a video taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft shows a coronal mass ejection (center) erupting from the sun on March 12, 2013.
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Solar Plasma Rain Falls on the Sun
Credit: NASA/SDO
A close-up of a spectacular loop of solar plasma "rain" on the sun as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft on July 19, 2012. NASA released a video of the amazing sight on Feb. 20, 2013.
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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Huge Solar Flare
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA
Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare, shown here in red/orange as that is the color typically used to show light in the 304 Angstrom wavelength. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on Jan. 22, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM.
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Quiet Sun During Solar Max
Credit: NASA/SDO
This image shows the Earth-facing surface of the Sun on February 28, 2013, as observed by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. HMI observed just a few small sunspots on an otherwise clean face, which is usually riddled with many spots during peak solar activity.
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Two Sunspots February 2013
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center
The bottom two black spots on the sun, known as sunspots, appeared quickly over the course of Feb. 19-20, 2013. These two sunspots are part of the same system and are over six Earths across.
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Solar Flare Captured by Solar Dynamics Observatory
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed the massive solar flare that erupted on the sun on Jan. 23, 2012 (0359 GMT; 10:59 p.m. EST).
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Solar Prominence Sun 'Twister' - Solar Dynamics Observatory
Credit: NASA/SDO/GSFC
A stalk-like prominence rose up above the sun, then split into roughly four strands that twisted themselves into a knot and dispersed over a two-hour period (July 12, 2011). NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took a video of the sun twister.
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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory - Sun's Magnetic Rope
Credit: NASA and George Mason University
On the left, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the magnetic rope as the thick looped structure extending above the edge of the sun. On the right, SDO observes as the surrounding cool magnetic field lines are pushed away by the intruding magnetic rope seen on the left. Both images are taken almost simultaneously (within three seconds of each other).
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M-Class Solar Flare - Solar Dynamics Observatory
Credit: NASA/SDO
A powerful M9-class solar flare erupted from the sun at 10:09 p.m. EDT on July 29 (0209 GMT July 30).
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Huge Solar Flare Seen by Solar Dynamics Observatory - January 23, 2012
Credit: NASA/SDO
The images above show a HUGE solar flare as observed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) at 0327, 0342, and 0412 GMT on January 23 (10:27 p.m., 10:42 p.m. and 11:12 p.m. EST on Jan. 22).
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Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Jan. 23 Solar Flare
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed the M9-class solar flare that sparked the strongest radiation storm since 2005.
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Solar Flare Seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the flare, shown here in teal as that is the color typically used to show light in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength in which it is easy to view solar flares. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on Jan. 22, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM.
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Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees X-Class Solar Flare
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spotted the X1.1-class solar flare that erupted from the sun at 11:13 p.m. EST on March 4 (0413 GMT March 5).
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2012 Venus Transit Seen by Solar Dynamics Observatory
Credit: NASA/SDO
This series of photographs of the 2012 Venus transit was seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory in space, June 5, 2012.
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Sunspot AR 1520 Seen by Solar Dynamics Observatory
Credit: NASA/SDO (via Twitter @NASA_SDO)
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory saw sunspot AR 1520 before the solar flare erupted from it on July 12, 2012.
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Solar Dynamics Observatory Better than Ultra-HD
Credit: NASA / SDO
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory takes photos that are so high-resolution that not even the most advanced Ultra-HD TVs have the definition to display them in full resolution.
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Flux Ropes on the Sun
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO
This is an image of magnetic loops on the sun, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). It has been processed to highlight the edges of each loop to make the structure more clear. A series of loops such as this is known as a flux rope, and these lie at the heart of eruptions on the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs.) This is the first time scientists were able to discern the timing of a flux rope's formation. (Blended 131 Angstrom and 171 Angstrom images of July 19, 2012 flare and CME.)
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Lunar Transit Authority
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO
Tuesday, March 8, 2011: NASA's SDO satellite photographed the moon passing in front of the sun, March 2-4, 2011.
--Tom Chao
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Solar Dynamics Observatory Pre-July 4 Fireworks From the Sun
Credit: NASA/SDO
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this M5.6 class solar flare on July 2, 2012.
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SP_120906_SDOEclipseSeason.jpg
Credit: NASA SDO
Earth Gets In The Way During SDO's Eclipse Season
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SDO Combined Views of the Solar Flare on July 12, 2012
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI
This image combines two sets of observations of the sun at 10:45 AM EDT, July 12, 2012 from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to give an impression of what the sun looked like shortly before it unleashed an X-class flare beginning at 12:11 PM EDT.
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SDO's Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit - 304 Angstrom
Credit: NASA/SDO, AIA
On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured June 5, 2012.
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SDO Sees Sun Tornadoes
Credit: NASA/SDO
Tornado-like plasma twisters dance across the sun in this still from a NASA video recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory during a 30-hour period between Feb. 7 and 8 in 2012.
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X-Class Solar Flare Seen by SDO - March 6, 2012
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the huge X-class solar flare erupting from the surface of the sun on March 6, 2012.
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Solar Dynamics Observatory Independence Day Fireworks
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/Helioviewer/TheSunToday
This image shows four separate images of the M5.3 class flare from the morning of July 4, 2012.
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Strong Solar Flare: April 11, 2013
Credit: NASA/SDO
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a powerful M6.5 class flare, the strongest of 2013 at the time, at 3:16 EDT on April 11, 2013. This image shows a combination of light in wavelengths of 131 and 171 Angstroms.
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Solar Eruption of Aug. 31, 2012
Credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/Goddard Space Flight Center
On Aug. 31, 2012, a giant prominence on the sun erupted, sending out particles and a shock wave that traveled near Earth. This event may have been one of the causes of a third radiation belt that appeared around Earth a few days later, a phenomenon that was observed for the very first time by the newly-launched Van Allen Probes. This image of the prominence before it erupted was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
