Pictures: Giant Walls of Plasma Seen on Sun

Looping the Sun

Image courtesy Pete Lawrence

A bright, sinuous line of superheated gas, or plasma, loops around the rim of the sun on November 12. U.K.-based solar observer Pete Lawrence captured the picture using a filter-equipped telescope.

The solid black squares obscuring parts of the sun may be results of the image having been stitched together from smaller photographs, NASA's Gurman speculated.

"You could make images like this with a four- or five-inch telescope if you have really good optics and a special filter," Gurman said.

These gas loops are called solar prominences when viewed against space and solar filaments when viewed against the sun's surface. A gas loop can also be both a prominence and a filament, like the one captured in this image.

Prominences and filaments differ from solar flares in that prominences are typically less energetic and cooler, Gurman explained.

Also, prominences can linger for weeks or months at a time, while flares are much shorter-lived events.

(See "'Dark Fireworks' Seen on Sun-Blast as Big as Ten Earths.")

Published November 17, 2011

Solar Portrait

Image courtesy Mike Borman

This composite image, taken by Indiana-based solar observer Mike Borman November 13, shows both the full disk of the sun as well as prominences at its edges.

The circular blemishes on the solar surface are sunspots, regions of intense magnetic activity. Each sunspot in this photograph is about 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) across—or the width of four Earths, NASA's Gurman said.

(See the first 3-D pictures of the sun.)

Published November 17, 2011

Giant "Hurl" of Plasma

Photograph courtesy Alan Friedman

"This massive prominence stands more than 50,000 miles [80,000 kilometers] high and stretches 150,000 miles [241,000 kilometers] across the edge of the solar disk," solar observer Alan Friedman wrote on his blog after taking this picture November 12 during a visit to the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York.

It's the "biggest hurl of hydrogen plasma that I have seen in years," he added.

Said NASA's Gurman, "You can see the fine-scale features here, which gives you a better idea of how filamented the material in a prominence really is."

(Related: "Biggest Solar Flare in Years-Auroras to Be Widespread Tonight?")

Published November 17, 2011

Solar Closeup

Drawing courtesy Roel Weijenberg

This pastel drawing of the sun, created by Roel Weijenberg as he looked through his telescope November 14, depicts both a solar prominence and a solar filament.

If energetic enough, solar prominences and filaments can erupt, or be ejected into space, NASA's Gurman explained.

When this happens—about once every few days somewhere on the sun—the loops of gas quickly cool and then dissipate until they are no longer visible.

But when these eruptions are directed toward Earth, they can lead to power outages.

(See "Giant Sunspot Now Aimed Directly at Earth.")

Published November 17, 2011