Spicules on the Solar Surface (IMAGE)

National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Spicules on the Solar Surface

Caption

Narrow jets of material, called spicules, streak upward from the solar surface at speeds often greater than 100 kilometers per second (60 miles/sec). Some of the spicules' plasma (ionized gas), which can reach temperatures in excess of one million degrees kelvin, is inserted into the corona (the Sun's outer atmosphere).

Credit

Images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

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