Double Explosions on the Sun Today

By Nancy Atkinson - January 28, 2011 at 11:15 AM UTC | Solar Astronomy

The Sun had a fit and popped off two large events at once early today, Jan. 28, 2011. A filament on the left side became unstable and erupted, while an M-1 flare (mid-sized) and a coronal mass ejection on the right blasted into space. Neither event was headed towards Earth. This SDO movie, which is from Jan. 26-28, 2011, shows several other flashes and bursting from the active region on the right as well.

If you remember, in December, solar physicists released their findings that

near-synchronous explosions in the solar atmosphere – sometimes millions of kilometers apart – can be related.

You can see another view of the events as seen by the SOHO spacecraft below, and another version of the SDO data.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Solar activity on Jan. 28, 2011 captured by SOHO. "]

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[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Two major eruptions on the Sun occurred on Jan. 28,2011, and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the action."]

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Here's another multi-wavelength and closeup view of the events from SDO: