PIA17912: Solar Flares with some Flair
The Sun produced three M-class (medium-sized) flares in less than 13 hours and the third one had an interesting flourish at the end (July 22-23, 2016). These were the largest flares the Sun had produced this year as seen by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observato
 Target Name:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  SDO 
 Instrument:  Atmosphere Imaging Assembly 
 Product Size:  720 x 402 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Goddard Space Flight Center 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA17912.tif (852.2 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA17912.jpg (31.3 kB)  

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Original Caption Released with Image:

The Sun produced three M-class (medium-sized) flares in less than 13 hours and the third one had an interesting flourish at the end (July 22-23, 2016). These were the largest flares the Sun had produced this year. The first two flares occurred in quick succession. The third one (see the still taken at 5:38 UT on the 23rd), besides the familiar bright flash of a flare, also spewed out into space a curving string of plasma.

Movies
PIA17912_Threeflares193_big.mp4
PIA17912_Threeflares193_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

Image Credit:
NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory

Image Addition Date:
2016-07-23