Solar boomers (May 14, 2010)

Hi-res TIF image (1.2M)

Quicktime Movie: Large (7.8M), Small (1.6M)
MPEG Movie (4.6M)

The Sun seems to be slowly emerging from its extended solar minimum with five solar eruptions over a four-day period (May. 5 - 9, 2010). SOHO captured the action with its C2 coronagraph in which the sun is blocked out (by the circular occulting disk in the center of the image) to reveal the faint structures in the corona. The white circle represents the size of the Sun. These eruptions were not Earth-directed, and there is little evidence that effects from any of these blasts were felt here at Earth.

SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display.

If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov.