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Twisting Plasma

June 8, 2016
A close-up of twisting plasma above the Sun's surface produced a nice display of turbulence by caused combative magnetic forces (June 7-8, 2016) over a day and a half as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

A close-up of twisting plasma above the Sun's surface produced a nice display of turbulence by caused combative magnetic forces (June 7-8, 2016) over a day and a half. The plasma does not break away, but just spins and twists the entire period. Images were taken in extreme ultraviolet light. The mass we observed is part of a longer, darkish filament angling down from the upper left of the frame. Filaments are unstable clouds of plasma suspended above the Sun by magnetic forces.

Movie
Twisting304_big.mp4
Twisting304_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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