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Jumpy Active Region

Jan. 3, 2017
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this close-up view of one day in the life of a rather small active region shows the agitation and dynamism of its magnetic field (Dec. 21, 2016).

A close-up view of one day in the life of a rather small active region shows the agitation and dynamism of its magnetic field (Dec. 21, 2016). This wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light reveals particles as they spin along the cascading arches of magnetic field lines above the active region. Some darker plasma rises up and spins around at the edge of the sun near the end of the video clip also being pulled by unseen magnetic forces.

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PIA15032_JumpyActiveRegion193_big.mp4
PIA15032_JumpyActiveRegion193_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

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