Spicules: Jets on the Sun
The Sun is covered with thousands of young spicules. These spicules are pipes of transparent magnetic fields filled with hot gas moving 50,000 kilometers per hour. Each pipe is as wide as a state and as long as Earth! In this particular picture, the spicules are extremely evident in the converging sunspot in the lower left corner. Spicules usually only last about five minutes. They start out as very tall tubes and rapidly decrease in size. It is amazing how incredibly high resolution this picture is! What determines the actual creation of these spicules is still unknown.
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