March 23, 2010
The constellations may be old, but the person celebrating beneath them is gloriously new by cosmic standards.
Reinvigorated Sun and Prominence
Birthday · March 23, 2010
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APOD published March 23, 2010. Credit: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Dramatic prominences can sometimes be seen looming just beyond the edge of the sun. Such was the case last week as a giant prominence, visible above on the right, highlighted a Sun showing increased activity as it comes off an unusually quiet Solar Minimum. A changing carpet of hot gas is visible in the chromosphere of the Sun in the above image taken in a very specific color of light emitted by hydrogen. A solar prominence is a cloud of solar gas held just above the surface by the Sun's magnetic field. The Earth would easily fit below the prominence on the right. Although very hot, prominences typically appear dark when viewed against the Sun, since they are slightly cooler than the surface. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System. The next day, the same prominence looked slightly different.
Image credit: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)