Gallery: Science Graphic of the Week: Spectacular, Twisted Solar Eruption
Tahar Amari /Centre de physique théorique.CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique, France01fig3-PR-TAmari
Computer simulation of a 2006 solar eruption as a magnetic rope squeezed out of equilibrium and ballooned upward, converting stored energy into kinetic energy that blasted particles from the sun's surface.
Tahar Amari /Centre de physique théorique.CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique, France02fig1-TA-TAmari
A typical solar eruption, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, with Earth added in for scale. Here, a looping magnetic filament is spiraling upward, producing that characteristic arch.
Tahar Amari /Centre de physique théorique.CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique, France03fig2-TA-TAmari
Model of the magnetic field a few hours before a major eruption occurred in 2006. The grey line is a magnetic rope, and the orange arches (magnetic fields) are keeping it in equilibrium near the surface.
Amari et al./Nature04nature-solar-edf-4
Magnetic field lines overlaid atop an extreme-ultraviolet image of an unstable region on the sun's surface, captured by NASA's SOHO satellite.
Amari et al./Nature05nature-solar-edf-1a
This illustrates where the model is strongest. Areas where the team had many data points have smaller tetrahedra, and areas where data was sparse have larger tetrahedra.
Amari et al./Nature06sunspot-cap
The computed magnetic field produced a rope-like structure (shown here in black) that matches up with images of the region taken just before the eruption in 2006.
