“Birthday Candles” on the Sun

A cluster of coronal cells seen by SDO on June 17, 2011. (NASA/SDO AIA instrument)

Make a wish! Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory have identified new “birthday candle” structures in the Sun’s super-hot corona that may shed some light on the way its magnetic fields evolve — especially near the edges of vast, dark, wind-spewing coronal holes.

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