APOD: 2003 April 18 - Double Eruptive Prominences (original) (raw)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2003 April 18

Double Eruptive Prominences
Credit: SOHO -EIT Consortium,ESA, NASA

Explanation: Lofted overthe Sunon looping magnetic fields, large solar prominences are composed of relatively cool, denseplasma. When seen against the brilliant solar disk theyappear as dark filaments, but these enormousmagnetic structuresare bright themselves when viewed against the blackness of space as they arc above the Sun's edge. In arare visual treat, these two solar prominences arising from the Sun's southern (lower) hemisphere were captured in extreme ultraviolet light by the EIT camera on board the space-basedSOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on March 21.For scale, the pair of plasma loops stretch above the Sun to a height of about twenty times the diameter of planet Earth. In a matter of hours, these prominences apparentlyeruptedaway from the Sun's surface and may have been associated with a flare and coronal mass ejection.

Tomorrow's picture: Centaurus galaxy

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff(MTU) &Jerry Bonnell(USRA)
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