This rather dramatic photograph of the sun was taken on Feb. 1 by the Japanese-led Hinode (pronounced hi-node-ay) solar mission currently orbiting the Earth. The 5-year old spacecraft can see the sun in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray wavelengths, so it is especially adept at seeing multi-million degree solar plasma.

In this image, two large dark “coronal holes” can be seen.

The solar surface is twisted with magnetic field lines and within those magnetic loops (known, unsurprisingly, as “coronal loops”) solar plasma is trapped, accelerated, heated and pulled back to the solar surface — producing a phenomenon called “coronal rain.”

Read More at Source:http://news.discovery.com/space/theres-a-hole-in-the-sun.html