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Plasma Push and Pull

June 30, 2015
This still image from an animation from NASA GSFC's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows dark strands of plasma hovering above the Sun's surface beginning to interact with each other in a form of tug of war over two and a half days (June 28-30, 2015).

Dark strands of plasma hovering above the Sun's surface began to interact with each other in a form of tug of war over two and a half days (June 28-30, 2015). At times, strands of plasma extended a tenuous connection between one area and the other. Twice the small tower of plasma to the lower left shot a burst of energy over to the quivering filament higher up. We are seeing the push and pull of magnetic forces revealed in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.

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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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