Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On March 7, 2011 @ 5:10 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
A Solar Prominence Eruption from SDO
Credit: NASA [1]/Goddard [2]/SDO AIA Team [3]
Explanation: One of the most spectacular solar sights is an erupting prominence. Two weeks ago, NASA’s Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory [4] spacecraft imaged an impressively large prominence [5] erupting from the surface. The dramatic explosion [6] was captured in ultraviolet light in the above time lapse video [7] covering 90 minutes, where a new frame was taken every 24 seconds. The scale of the prominence is huge — the entire Earth [8] would easily fit under the flowing curtain [9] of hot gas. A solar prominence [10] is channeled and sometimes held above the Sun’s surface by the Sun’s magnetic field [11]. A quiescent prominence typically [12] lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection [13] (CME) expelling hot gas [14] into the Solar System [15]. The energy mechanism that creates a solar prominence [16] is still a topic of research [17]. As the Sun progresses toward Solar Maximum [18] in the next few years, solar activity [19] like eruptive prominences [20] are expected to become more common.
[21]
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URLs in this post:
[1] NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/
[2] Goddard: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html
[3] SDO AIA Team: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
[4] Solar Dynamic Observatory: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/main/index.html
[5] impressively large prominence: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030223.html
[6] dramatic explosion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N2PXdq_bWE
[7] above time lapse video: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News022411-monsterprom.html
[8] Earth: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0208/earthlights02_dmsp_big.jpg
[9] curtain: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011203.html
[10] solar prominence: http://solar.physics.montana.edu/YPOP/Program/hfilament.html
[11] magnetic field: http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/the_key.shtml
[12] prominence typically: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/sun/prominences.html
[13] Coronal Mass Ejection: http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/~reames/DARK7.HTML
[14] expelling hot gas: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010924.html
[15] Solar System: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_Solar_System
[16] solar prominence: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030707.html
[17] research: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004ApJ...600.1043Z
[18] Solar Maximum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_maximum
[19] solar activity: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap071203.html
[20] eruptive prominences: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100510.html
[21] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/550px-171879main_LimbFlareJan12_lg.jpg
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