Record Prominence Imaged by Solar Orbiter
What's happened to our Sun?
Last month, it produced the largest
prominence
ever imaged together with a
complete solar disk.
The record image, featured, was
captured in
ultraviolet light by the Sun-orbiting
Solar
Orbiter
spacecraft.
A quiescent
solar prominence is a cloud of hot gas held above the
Sun's surface by the
Sun's magnetic field.
This solar prominence was huge --
spanning a length rivaling the diameter of the Sun itself.
Solar prominences may
erupt unpredictably and
expel hot gas into the Solar System via a
Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).
When a
CME strikes the Earth
and its
magnetosphere, bright
auroras may occur.
This prominence did produce a
CME,
but it was directed well away from the Earth.
Although surely related to the Sun's changing magnetic field, the energy mechanism that creates and sustains a
solar prominence remains a
topic of research.