SOHO: Double Eruptive Prominences
Hi-resolution image (TIF, 4.0M)
Two large solar prominences in extreme
ultraviolet light (ionized helium at 304) roughly the same size but
quite different in structure appeared on the Sun on 18 March 2003. The
observation of two large prominences in one image makes this one of the
most spectacular images that SOHO has captured.
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. The one on the right and
possibly both were associated with a flare and a coronal mass ejection
that blasted away from the Sun at about the time of this image. The
twisting nature of the one on the right is of particular interest to
some solar physicists who believe that eruptive events like this are
the Sun’s way of getting rid of magnetic fields that are twisted up too
tightly, like the rubber bands that run model airplanes. For a sense
of scale, the prominences extend about 20 Earths out from the Sun.
They both had disappeared by the time the next image was taken 6 hours
later.
