PIA21067: Earth-Directed Coronal Hole
On Sept. 18-21,2016 NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spotted a dark coronal hole that was facing towards Earth for several days spewing streams of solar wind in our direction.
 Target Name:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  SDO 
 Instrument:  Atmosphere Imaging Assembly 
 Product Size:  1500 x 1501 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  Goddard Space Flight Center 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA21067.tif (4.12 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA21067.jpg (131.9 kB)  

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Original Caption Released with Image:

A dark coronal hole that was facing towards Earth for several days spewed streams of solar wind in our direction (Sept. 18-21, 2016). A coronal hole is a magnetically open region. The magnetic fields have opened up allowing solar wind (comprised of charged particles) to stream into space. Gusts of solar wind can generate beautiful aurora when they reach Earth. The video clip shows the sun in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.

Movies
PIA21067_Coronal_hole_193_best.mp4
PIA21067_Coronal_hole_193_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:
2016-09-21