A Prominence on the Sun
This eerie landscape
of
incandescent plasma suspended in
looping and twisted magnetic fields stretched toward the
Sun's eastern horizon on September 16.
Captured through a backyard telescope
and narrowband filter in light from ionized hydrogen, the scene
finds
bright plages near dark sunspots
and a gigantic prominence lofted above the solar limb.
Some 600,000 kilometers across, the magnetized plasma wall would
dwarf worlds of
the Solar System.
Ruling gas giant Jupiter can only boast a diameter of
143,000 kilometers or so, while
planet Earth's diameter is less than 13,000 kilometers.
Known as a hedgerow prominence for its appearance, the enormous
structure is far from stable though, and such large solar
prominences
often erupt.