Maybe you've heard the Sun referred to a burning ball of gas. To be more precise, the material that makes up the Sun is actually called plasma. Plasma is a state of matter that forms when tremendous amounts of energy cause the bonds that hold atoms together to break apart.
Plasma acts in some ways just like a gas.
But on the Sun, plasma also does some pretty strange things. This photograph shows a solar phenomenon called loops. Loops are gigantic arches of plasma that extent thousands of miles into space. They can last for weeks, or even months. Scientists believe that powerful disturbances in the Sun's magnetic field hold, or confine the plasma in these great looping formations.