Powerful X1.4 flare

he Sun produced a powerful X1.4 flare on September 22, 2011. From Earth, this flare appeared on the limb, but the STEREO Behind spacecraft saw the event head on. This movie shows the flare as seen in the iron emission line at 195 Angstroms (green). A coronal wave can be seen traveling south from the flare along the surface of the Sun, and the associated coronal mass ejection shows up spectacularly in the coronagraph images (blue) as it travels directly toward the STEREO Behind spacecraft. At the end of the movie, the highly energetic particles thrown off by the Sun and traveling near the speed of light can be seen impacting the telescope detectors, producing bright dots and streaks.

• proton_20110922b.mov   
• proton_20110922b.mpg   
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