NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC'S SPACE PICTURES THIS WEEK LXXXI

Best New Space Pictures: Solar Blasts, Circling Skies, and Bathing Stars
By Dan Vergano, National Geographic News, 25 October 2013.

Solar blasts, ruins old and new, and glimpses of a young star blowing a vast bubble are showcased in the week's best space pictures.

1. Solar Flare Wink

Bulls eye! A bright flare erupts from the sun's surface as seen straight-on by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft.

Solar flares release strong radiation outbursts, ones sometimes strong enough to interfere with radio signals on Earth. This October 23 outburst clocked in near the top of the "medium" class of such flares, making it an M9.4-class solar flare. (Related: "Solar Flare: What If Biggest Known Sun Storm Hit Today?")

Such flares have become more common with the sun now near the peak of its regular sunspot activity cycle.

SDO watches for such outbursts in the infrared spectrum, as seen here, to see details of flares washed out or unseen in visible-light images. (Related: "Solar Flare Sparks Biggest Eruption Ever Seen on Sun.")

2. Sun's Canyon of Fire

A canyon of fire remains behind as an arc of solar material blasts off from the sun's surface and punches through the solar atmosphere.

The 200,000-mile-long (321,000-kilometres-long) string of charged particles was fired from the sun by a clash of powerful magnetic field loops. As the loops pulled apart, they lofted the filament through the solar atmosphere, where temperatures reach 1.8 million°F (1 million°C). (Learn about the sun's magnetic field.)

The eruption's build-up took place over two days from October 29 to October 30, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Laboratory. (Related: "Sun's Magnetic Field to Reverse: What It Means.")

3. Star Trails

Photograph by Waldemar Markiewka, National Geographic Your Shot

Resembling a modern-day Stonehenge, an abandoned brick factory in Sztutowo, Poland, is circled by stars in this striking September 7 photograph submitted to National Geographic's Your Shot.

The North Star and its companions hang high above the leftmost tower, at the centre of the circle.

4. Starlit Bubble Nebula

Photograph by Terry Hancock, National Geographic Your Shot

The Bubble Nebula seems to float upward, borne aloft by a froth of surrounding stars, in this photograph submitted October 21 to National Geographic's Your Shot.

The nebula is actually a bubble of gas flowing outward from a powerful young star some 15 times more massive than the sun. The bubble sits embedded within a cloud of interstellar gas.

The view seen here was captured over ten nights of viewing time from a backyard in Fremont, Michigan.

5. Swedish Northern Lights

Photograph by Tomoya Suzuki, National Geographic Your Shot

Northern lights dance above Lake Nydala in Sweden in this unearthly view of the night-time sky, taken October 15.

Auroras form regularly in northern latitudes, where Earth's magnetic field dips and allows solar particles to interact with the upper atmosphere. (See more pictures of the northern lights.)

6. Ancient City Seen From Space

Once the home of the legendary hero Gilgamesh, the ancient city of Uruk reappears in this overhead view captured by NASA's Terra orbiting spacecraft.

The large yellow area in the upper right of the picture, Uruk was once the largest city in the world, with about 50,000 inhabitants around 2,900 B.C.

The city was abandoned after the Euphrates River channel it guarded changed course, and was empty by 500 A.D. Archaeologists rediscovered the city in 1848.

[Source: National Geographic News. Edited.]