Erupting Sun
On August 27th
twisting magnetic fields
propelled this huge eruptive prominence
a hundred thousand miles above
the Sun's surface.
The seething plasma of ionized gases is at a temperature of about 150,000
degrees Farenheit and spans over 200,000 miles (about 27 Earths).
The Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) onboard the space-based
SOHO observatory recorded
this exquisitely detailed image in the light of ionized
Helium atoms from its
vantage point in a Halo orbit.
This is the largest
solar prominence observed by SOHO instruments
since they began
exploring solar phenomena in early 1996.