Solar Flare on Sun - January 15-16, 2012

The upper one of a pair of new, solar active regions that just rotated into view of SDO offered a beautiful profile view of cascading loops spiraling above it (Jan. 15-16, 2012) following a solar flare eruption. These loop structures are made of superheated plasma, just one of which is the size of several Earths. With its ability to capture the Sun in amazing detail, SDO observed it all in extreme ultraviolet light. This particular video clip used an image every five minutes to present the motion. Note all of the other spurts and minor bursts from both regions during almost two days.