A Leaky Solar Prominence
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August 26, 2025
In the time it took you to read this, the Earth moved another thousand miles through space. You are not standing still. You never have been.
A Leaky Solar Prominence
Birthday · August 26, 2025
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APOD published August 26, 2025 · Video still. Credit: Andrea Girones. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What's hovering above the Sun? A solar prominence. A prominence is a crest of hot gas expelled from the Sun's surface that is held aloft by the Sun's magnetic field. Prominences can last for days, can suddenly explode into space, or just fall back to the Sun. What decides a prominence's fate is how the Sun's complex magnetic field changes -- the field's direction can act like an offramp for trapped solar particles. The 3-second (repeating) time-lapse featured video was captured earlier this month from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It shows the development of a larger-than-Earth prominence as it appears to leak solar plasma back to the Sun, over the course of an hour. What is unusual is that the prominence appears to hover -- more simple and typical prominences form magnetic loops that connect back to the surface. Many hours after this video ended, the hovering prominence disintegrated back into the Sun. Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Image credit: Andrea Girones