Busy Days for Old Sol

The Sun blasted out at least eight coronal mass ejections in all directions over the course of five days (Jan. 9-14, 2013). While none of them was a major storm, the frequency is indicative that the Sun is approaching the period of solar maximum in its solar cycle. The images were taken by the STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft's COR2 coronagraph. The STEREO spacecraft are each more than 120 degrees beyond the Earth-Sun line, so that this is a very different view from the one available from Earth or spacecraft (like SDO) near it. The Sun (here represented by the small white circle) is blocked out by the black occulting disk so that the faint features in the Sun's corona can be imaged.

• COR2_days_best.mov   
• COR2_days_sm.mov   
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