Coronal loops in early February

An active region of the sun that rotated into the view of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory from about February 8-10, 2014 gave this profile view of solar coronal loops.

Coronal loops are found around sunspots and in active regions. They are a direct consequence of the twisted solar magnetic flux within the sun. Many coronal loops last for days or weeks, but most change quite rapidly.

This image was taken in extreme ultraviolet light.