National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Goddard Space Flight Center
Sun-Earth Day 2009: Our Sun Yours to Discover
IMAGE GALLERY
- Halo Event
This is a classic image of a "halo event," so called because the circular area of the edges of the blast seems to form a kind of halo around the Sun. In the image taken by LASCO C2 on 16 July 2002, one can observe particles blasting out from the Sun in almost all directions. Since this particular event had its origin on the backside of the Sun, the material is streaming away from us here at Earth.
NASA Fact
The most powerful solar flare in the last 500 years occurred on September 2, 1859 and was sighted by two astronomers who happened to be looking at the sun at exactly the right time!