Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
A Solar Prominence from SOHO
Explanation:
How can gas float above the Sun? Twisted magnetic [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] fields arching from the solar surface can [ http://hesperia.gsf…] trap ionized gas, suspending it in huge looping structures. These majestic plasma arches [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] are seen as prominences above the solar limb. In September 1999, this dramatic and detailed image was recorded by the EIT experiment on board the space-based SOHO observatory [ http://seal.nascom.…] in the light emitted by ionized Helium [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. It shows hot plasma escaping into space as a fiery prominence breaks free from magnetic confinement [ http://www.lmsal.co…] a hundred thousand kilometers above the Sun. These awesome events [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] bear watching [ http://umbra.nascom…] as they can affect communications and power systems over 100 million kilometers [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] away on Planet Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…].
Credit and Copyright:
SOHO-EIT Consortium [ http://umbra.nascom…], ESA [ http://www.esa.int/], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
facet_when:
September 1999
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
facet_what:
Earth
facet_what:
Sun
facet_what:
SOHO
facet_when_year:
1999
original url:
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap060416

A Solar Prominence from SOHO