a closer look at solar flares

This is not an ordinary X-ray image of the Sun; it's a negative image. The dark areas on the negative display are actually the brightest areas on the Sun and vice-versa. We use this form of display sometimes because it can make it easier to see faint features. Here's what the positive-image version would look like .

Put your mouse over the faint ‘explosion!’ text below to see how we can see things better in ‘the negative’ sometimes.

The black, arch-shaped feature on the left-hand side of the Sun is a solar flare, a huge explosion on the Sun. A solar flare can often be much larger than the entire Earth.

Solar flares are the biggest explosions in our solar system

Here is a close up movie of a flare in UV radiation taken by the EIT instrument on SOHO.