PICK OF THE WEEK
Pick of The Week
Erupting Prominence (February 28, 2003)
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For many days observers had watched a long prominence above the Sun's
surface as the Sun's rotation brought it across our view of the Sun.
It extended over half the diameter of the Sun - about 50 million
miles (85 million km). Then in a dramatic development, it lifted off
like the edge of a spider web being stretched until it broke. In a
period of just about two hours, all that was left of it was a
tell-tale series of post coronal loops where it used to be. It
generated the coronal mass ejection (CME) that appeared to head
towards the Comet NEAT (see NEAT Hotshots page) hours later on 18
February 2003, though apparently the two did not interact. These
erupting prominences have been identified as the source of many CMEs,
though the physical process that triggers their eruptions has not yet
been determined.
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. |
