Solitary Loop

While the Sun still remains very quiet in terms of solar activity, STEREO (Behind) watched as magnetic forces made a solar loop balloon out above the solar surface (Apr. 4-5, 2009). As observed in extreme UV light, the particles in the loop trace the magnetic field lines above a small active region. They remain fairly stable until it seems to quietly fade away. The darker region near the center of the image is a coronal hole, an area where high-speed solar wind streams out into space. Towards the end of the video clip another small active region (seen as a white area near the coronal hole) emerges. So as we wait for sunspots to appear and solar activity to pick up, there are still some solar features of interest to see.

• 171loop_zm.mov - (3.96 mb)   
• 171loop_zm_best.mov - (8.02 mb)   
• 171loop_zm.mpg - (6.37 mb)   
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