Solar wind
Videos
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the Sun's outermost atmospheric layer, the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic ener
Laboratory simulation of the magnetosphere's influence on the solar wind; these aurora-like Birkeland currents were created in a terrella, a magnetised anode globe in an evacuated chamber.
This is thought to show the solar wind from the star L.L. Orionis generating a bow shock (the bright arc).
CME erupts from the Sun
Apollo's SWC experiment
Coronal hole
Videos
A coronal hole is a region of the Sun's corona that appears dark in extreme-ultraviolet and soft-X-ray images because its plasma is cooler and more rarefied than the surrounding corona. Despite its na
When observed in extreme ultraviolet, coronal holes appear as relatively dark patches in the Sun's corona. Here, there is a big coronal hole in the northern hemisphere.
When the Sun's disk is obscured during a total solar eclipse or by a coronagraph (pictured), coronal structures not otherwise visible can be observed above the limb.
Space weather effects