In
this picture, the Sun's surface is quite dark. A frame from a movie recorded
on November 9th by the orbiting TRACE telescope, it shows coronal loops
lofted over a solar active region. Glowing brightly in extreme ultraviolet
light, the hot plasma entrained above the Sun along arching magnetic fields
is cooling and raining back down on the solar surface. |
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Hours
earlier, on November 8th, astronomers had watched this particular active
region produce a not so spectacular solar flare. Still, the M-class flare
spewed forth an intense storm of particles, suddenly showering satellites
near the Earth with high energy protons. The flare event was also associated
with a large coronal mass ejection, a massive cloud of material which impacted
our fair planet's magnetic field about 31 hours later. The result ... a
strong geomagnetic storm. |
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