A Leaky Solar Prominence
Video Credit & Copyright:
Andrea Girones
What's hovering above the Sun?
A solar prominence.
A prominence is a crest of hot gas expelled from the
Sun's surface that is held aloft by the
Sun's magnetic field.
Prominences can last for days, can suddenly
explode into space, or just
fall back to the
Sun.
What decides a prominence's fate is how the
Sun's complex magnetic field changes --
the field's direction can act like an
offramp for trapped
solar particles.
The 3-second (repeating) time-lapse
featured video was captured earlier this month from
Ottawa,
Ontario,
Canada.
It shows the development of a
larger-than-Earth prominence
as it appears to leak solar
plasma back to the Sun, over the course of an hour.
What is unusual is that the prominence appears to hover --
more simple and typical prominences form
magnetic loops that connect back to the surface.
Many hours after this video ended, the
hovering prominence disintegrated back into the Sun.