Blasting coronal mass ejection (CME)

Credit: SOHO (ESA & NASA)

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This LASCO C2 image, taken 8 January 2002, shows a widely spreading coronal mass ejection (CME) as it blasts more than a billion tons of matter out into space at millions of kilometers per hour. The C2 image was turned 90 degrees so that the blast seems to be pointing down. An EIT 304 Angstrom image from a different day was enlarged and superimposed on the C2 image so that it filled the occulting disk for effect.

Links:

• Wikipedia - Coronal mass ejection
• Scientific American, August 2008 - article on CMEs