Curlaway Prominence! (January 23, 2006)
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Over a one day period (Jan. 13-14, 2006) SOHO watched as a prominence that was just rotating into view kind of peeled back and broke away from the Sun and out into space. The sequence, taken at 6-hour intervals, shows the progression of events in a stop motion fashion. This instrument is observing singly ionized helium not far above the Sun at temperature of about 60,000 K. Prominences are usually elongated clouds of material suspended above the Sun that are being controlled by magnetic field forces. Prominences can last from hours to weeks. We do not know how long this was existed before some triggering force caused it to break away.
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. |
