Solar eruption tears ‘canyon of fire’ into the surface of the sun

The sun may be extraordinarily quiet these days, given that it's supposed to be at the maximum of its 11-year cycle right now, but it's still showing off a few surprises, like the spectacular effect seen at the base of an eruption that took place on Tuesday.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured these images of the sun's eastern limb as an eruption sent a blast of super-heated plasma out into space. What's particularly cool is the 'canyon of fire' that's ripped open as the filament of plasma explodes away from the surface. The repeated sequence shows the event using several different filters, to reveal the incredible details of what's going on.

Technically, although calling this a 'canyon of fire' is a bit more fun, and that's certainly what it looks like, this is actually called a Hyder flare. It specifically refers to the intense brightening that appears on both sides of where the eruption took place. Hyder flares don't happen all the time, but our satellites have captured some great examples in the past. Although the view wasn't quite as close-up as for this one, SDO caught a particularly nice one back in early July.

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It's worth noting that the coronal mass ejection (CME) that resulted from this eruption isn't headed towards Earth. CMEs that do reach us cause geomagnetic storms as they bounce off Earth's magnetic field, which can kick up a lot of corona activity and even cause problems with orbiting satellites. Some CMEs have even affected electrical systems on the surface, causing blackouts like the one in Quebec in 1989. A particularly powerful one in August of 1859, called the Carrington Event, caused the telegraph systems in Europe and North America to fail, with the line towers throwing off sparks and operators suffering electric shocks.

NOAA and other agencies around the world monitor these 'space weather' events, to provide the public with updates on the sun's activity, let us know when we might see spectacular auroras, or warn us of any potential problems from geomagnetic storms.

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