Beware: Blasting in the Area

For a second week in a row, coronal mass ejections were being blasted out from the Sun at a pace of almost two per day (Apr. 28 - May 4, 2013). And again, we counted ten CMEs for the six days, some of them bright, powerful eruptions. These were taken by the STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft's coronagraph, in which the black disk blocks the Sun (represented by the white circle) so that we can observe the fainter features beyond it. The Sun is predicted to be nearing its maximum period of activity: the combination of almost 30 CMEs during the Apr. 18- May 4 period would seem to fit in with that prediction, though it is still too early to tell.

• CME_6days_best.mov   
• CME_6days_sm.mov   
• CME_6days_sm.mpg   
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