#coronal loops

(A high-resolution image of the flare from the Inouye Solar Telescope, taken on August 8, 2024, at 20:12 UT. The image is about 4 Earth-diameters on each side. Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA)

"The highest-resolution images of a solar flare captured at the H-alpha wavelength (656.28 nm) ever captured may reshape how we understand the sun's magnetic architecture—and improve space weather forecasting.

Using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, built and operated by the National Solar Observatory (NSO), astronomers captured dark coronal loop strands with unprecedented clarity during the decay phase of an X1.3-class flare on August 8, 2024, at 20:12 UT."

"The paper describing this study, titled "Unveiling Unprecedented Fine Structure in Coronal Flare Loops with the DKIST," is available in The Astrophysical Journal Letters."

78,846 Photos of the Sun Are Stitched Together into a Mesmerizing Timelapse of Its Movements

Using data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, filmmaker Seán Doran composed an entrancing timelapse of the sun’s glowing coronal loops during a month-long period. The video project compiles 78,846 ångström-171 photographs from August 2014 that show the bright, curved structures, which are made of hot plasma, as they burst upward. Colorized in gold in the timelapse, the arced loops often form a bridge between dark sunspots, or places where powerful magnetic fields breach the surface and flow into the massive star’s atmosphere.