NASA has released stunning close-up images and video of active parts of our Sun that are bursting with solar energy.
In the clip two active regions sprouted arches of magnetic loops when charged particles spin along the magnetic field of the star, tracing out bright lines as they emit light in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.
This would normally be invisible to the naked eye, but filmed from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on November 11 and 12 in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 171 angstroms, we see it coloured as this remarkable gold.
A NASA spokesman said: "About halfway through the video, a small eruption from the active region near the center causes the coils to rise up and become brighter as the region re-organizes its magnetic field."
NASA also recently released an image from the same observatory of "a long dark line", known as a filament, which stretched at least halfway across the sun's face
The spokesman said: "This filament is about the length of 50 Earths side-by-side. Filaments are elongated clouds of solar material that are tethered above the sun by magnetic forces."
They are often unstable and usually break apart in less than a week, though they can last longer than that.
Filaments are darker than most of the sun’s surface when viewed in extreme ultraviolet light. This filament was imaged in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 193 angstroms, which is normally invisible to our eyes but was colorized in bronze.
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