This close-up from a video clip taken May 30-June 1, 2018 shows a large active region in extreme ultraviolet light as the bright magnetic field lines above it shift and twist. Note the Earth scale below the active region: the longest loops extend about 10 times the diameter of Earth. When the magnetic field lines get themselves tangled up enough, they can erupt with a solar storm.

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PIA22475_Dynamic_Looping_Action_big.mp4
PIA22475_Dynamic_Looping_Action_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.