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.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q. What are the characteristics of Solar Crown Prominence? Explain the structure of the Sun.