SOLAR PROMINENCE

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Context

• Photo of Solar Promimence was captured by Argentina-based astronomer Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau.

Details

• A dynamic moment of a turbulent wall of plasma falling down the Sun's surface just like a waterfall was captured by Argentina-based astronomer Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau.
• The photo clicked by the astrophotographer captured a plasma wall, that rose about 100,000 km above the solar surface.
• The phenomenon captured in the photo is called solar prominence.

About Solar Prominence

• A solar prominence (also known as a filament when viewed against the solar disk) is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface.
• Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, called the corona.
• A prominence forms over timescales of about a day, and stable prominences may persist in the corona for several months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space. Scientists are still researching how and why prominences are formed.
• The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas comprised of electrically charged hydrogen and helium.
• The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun’s internal dynamo. An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma.
• In this phenomenon, a large, bright feature extends outward from the Sun's surface.
• The large structure, which looked like a wall this time, was anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere and was extended outwards into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, called the corona.
• In short, a solar prominence is nothing but loops of plasma or ionised gases that eject from the solar surface by magnetic fields.

• A solar prominence is also called polar crown prominence (PCP) and has been seen by several scientists earlier as well.
• They most often appear in rings around the sun's poles.
• They are also nicknamed ‘plasma waterfalls’ due to their tendency to collapse back to the Sun due to stronger magnetic fields near the poles.

https://www.livemint.com/science/news/watch-magnificient-plasma-waterfall-on-the-sun-11681569500140.html