SOHO Pick of the Week: Seeing the Sun’s magnetic field lines 12 Feb 2002

In a low-density but highly ionized gas (or “plasma”) such as the
Sun’s outer atmosphere, the magnetic field rules: charged particles
must spiral around tight, loop-like magnetic fields, but might
actually escape from the Sun — as the solar wind — where the
field is nearly open (nearly straight field lines). The closed
magnetic loops originate in bright “active regions” in this image of
1 million K material in the lower corona, while the open field
originates in coronal “holes” of lower density and brightness.

Previous Picks of the Week

About

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.