The Sun Reaches Out

With a Hydrogen Gas Prominence

Here’s the Sun as seen today through the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) today (August 28), with a few prominences dancing around along the limb (edge).  Those are clouds of hot hydrogen gas streaming out along magnetic field lines from the sun’s “surface.”  https://i0.wp.com/spaceweather.com/swpod2008/28aug08/Pete-Lawrence1.jpg?resize=474%2C342They may look small, but these fingers and prominences are thousands and thousands of kilometers long. They make handy targets through telescopes equipped with special solar filters.

Here’s just such a view from observer Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK. It was posted on Spaceweather.com.

(Note: Earth has been added for scale — this is not a prominence reaching out for our planet.)

As they say over there, this does make you feel kind of small.

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