A rather small prominence began to appear in profile above the edge of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light on November 1, 2005. It had been visible against the Sun since it rotated into view on Oct. 22. Prominences are clouds of somewhat cooler gases that float above the Sun's surface and move with the Sun's rotation. Their formation is controlled by magnetic forces. They can last for hours to weeks.

This one began to erupt as you can see some hours before the first image shown (00:19 UT on Nov. 2). Something had caused it to become unstable and, poof, it began to break away and accelerate. The last wisps of it can be seen in the next image taken at 07:19, just six hours later. At this point, we would be correct in stating that it was an eruptive prominence.

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Previous Picks of the Week

SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display.

If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov.