14 DAY TRIAL // As the Sun nears the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, the European Space Agency is giving us a hint of things to come with a spectacular image shot in 2002, during the height of the previous cycle.
The image, shot by the SOHO satellite on January 4, 2002 shows a massive explosion of solar matter several times larger than the Sun itself.
"White represents the greatest intensity, red/orange somewhat less, and blue the least. An extreme-ultraviolet view is superimposed to show the size and active regions of the Sun that day," ESA explained.
The region in the middle is blocked out when the image is taken, to keep out most of the Sun's light so that the details in the corona become visible.
While the Sun has been relatively calm in this latest cycle, some eruptions like this are to be expected in the last part of the year. That said, most of them won't affect Earth other than create spectacular auroras at the poles, except in the most extreme cases.