Fire Breather

An especially complex and large coronal mass ejection in January 2002 made even seasoned solar physicists gasp with awe. An instrument onboard the SOHO spacecraft observed the particles blasting into the corona. The plain blue disk blocks out the Sun and the area right around it. Areas of white indicate the greatest intensity of matter; the reds somewhat less; blues, even less. An extreme ultraviolet image of the Sun (blue) was superimposed on the foreground to give a sense of scale.

Credit: NASA/SDO