Solar flare. Composite Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) image showing a solar flare and coronal mass ejection (CME, centre left) erupting from the surface of the Sun on 31 August 2012. The CME travelled at over 1, 400 kilometres per second. It did not travel directly towards Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of 3 September 2012. This is a composite of the SDO images obtained at wavelengths of 304 and 171 angstroms. The Earth (bottom left) has been added to show the relative scale of this CME event. The diameter of the Earth is approximately 12, 750km whereas the Sun has a diameter of about 1, 39 million km. | |
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Credit: | Science Photo Library / NASA |
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