A twisting pair of prominences erupt almost 50,000 miles above the surface of the sun in this image from SDO, taken today, October 21, 2010. This is a composite of two imaging wavelength filter images (AIA 304 and 171), combined to show surface (photosphere) detail as well as lower atmosphere (chromosphere) detail.

The scale size of the Earth is shown at upper left.

(Click image to view larger size in my Flickr photo album.)

Credit: NASA (SDO) and the AIA consortium. Edited by J. Major.