BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy ABC of Astronomy - F Is for Fusion *new*

The Sun is more than just a ball of burning gas. It's also a giant nuclear reactor. Find out about the fusion that supplies the energy to support life on Earth, and the solar flares that can disrupt it. Intense magnetic fields create sunspots and faculae, and suspend filaments a million miles long.

ABC of Astronomy - F Is for Fusion

SpaceWeather.com reports that yesterday a solar flare lasted for three hours. Since the flares usually only last a few minutes, this one must have been trying for a place in the Guinness Book of Records. The flare, which occurred above the sunspot AR2434, wasn't a very strong one. There was also a CME. It wasn't directed towards the Earth, but a part of it may hit the Earth's magnetic field and set off some weekend aurorae.

Get a load of this. A solar prominence that is very prominent indeed. Did you notice the comparison between the size of the prominence and that of our Earth? The images was taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in January 2013.

A diagram of the Sun by Connor's Science Lab.