Image of the Day: Double Eruption of the Sun

Image of the Day: Double Eruption of the Sun

Image credit: NASA/SDO/Steele Hill

On November 16, 2012 the sun experienced two prominence eruptions, one after the other over a four-hour period. The action was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) in the 304 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light According to NASA, it seems possible that the disruption to the Sun’s magnetic field might have triggered the second event since they were in relatively close proximity to each other.

The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas made 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. The expanding particle clouds heading into space do not appear to be Earth-directed. ■