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These solar prominences - captured on March 30, 2010 by NASA's SDO - are large arches of dense gas that are attached to the Sun at the photosphere (where the light we receive on Earth originates from), and extend out into the corona (the Sun's atmosphere). They appear to be very bright when viewed against the backdrop of space, but when seen on the disk of the Sun they appear dark and are known as filaments. This difference occurs because they are much cooler than the Sun’s surface, but when compared to the rest of space they are very, very hot.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA Team
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