PooF! A prominence break-away! (October 18, 2002)
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A solar prominence in extreme ultraviolet light (ionized helium at 304Å), observed for days above the Sun's surface as it rotated towards the Sun's central region, suddenly collapsed and broke away from the Sun on 15 October 2002. Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool, dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, tenuous corona. Magnetic fields built up enormous forces that propelled particles out beyond the Sun's surface. Emission in this spectral line shows the upper chromosphere at a temperature of about 60,000 degrees K. For a sense of scale, the width of the prominence extended about 50 Earths from end to end. 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. |