Making the Rounds

Early on Jan. 31, 2013, SDO observed a visual phenomena that most of us do not recall ever seeing before: a ring-shaped prominence that lay flat above the Sun's surface. Plasma streaming along the magnetic field lines appears to go in both directions at the same time along the field lines. Before long, the prominence became unstable and erupted in a large swirl with most of the materials falling back intio the Sun. You never know what you are going to see next.