A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
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A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
Hello All,
I was wondering if solar prominences can be detected visually or otherwise when they are oriented in our direction or can they only be seen exiting or above the Sun's limb generally at the edge.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090531.html
I was wondering if solar prominences can be detected visually or otherwise when they are oriented in our direction or can they only be seen exiting or above the Sun's limb generally at the edge.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090531.html
"Everything matters.....So may the facts be with you"-astrolabe
- neufer
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Re: A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
You should be able to detect, at least, one visually oriented in our direction in today's APOD.astrolabe wrote:Hello All,
I was wondering if solar prominences can be detected visually or otherwise when they are oriented in our direction or can they only be seen exiting or above the Sun's limb generally at the edge.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090531.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_prominence wrote: If a prominence occurs on the disc of the sun it appears darker than its background (due to the lower temperature of the plasma). These are referred to as solar filaments.
Art Neuendorffer
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Re: A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
Hello neufer,
Thanks for your reply and if that is indeed the case then a prominence of some size appeared to span across several longitudinal meridians ( is that a redundancy? probably!)- NW to SE at around the latitude 45degrees North.
Thanks for your reply and if that is indeed the case then a prominence of some size appeared to span across several longitudinal meridians ( is that a redundancy? probably!)- NW to SE at around the latitude 45degrees North.
"Everything matters.....So may the facts be with you"-astrolabe
Re: A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
Anyone know what the small spherical shadow just a little left of the end of the prominence is?
- Chris Peterson
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Re: A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
Looks like a dust shadow. There's no evidence that the image has been calibrated with either darks or flats.Frenchy wrote:Anyone know what the small spherical shadow just a little left of the end of the prominence is?
Chris
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- DavidLeodis
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Re: A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
Despite having seen very many similar images I'm still awestruck at them. That our Sun (which is only a very minor star in cosmic terms) has been burning its contents away for several billion years and should do for several billion more yet is truly amazing. Nature sure is wonderful. It's going to be very dark and cold around where Earth was when the light finally goes out!
- Chris Peterson
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Re: A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
Will the lights go out if there is nobody to see them? <g>DavidLeodis wrote:Despite having seen very many similar images I'm still awestruck at them. That our Sun (which is only a very minor star in cosmic terms) has been burning its contents away for several billion years and should do for several billion more yet is truly amazing. Nature sure is wonderful. It's going to be very dark and cold around where Earth was when the light finally goes out!
Just to quibble a bit with semantics, I wouldn't call the Sun a "minor star". It is actually very typical.
Chris
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Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
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Chris L Peterson
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Re: A Solar Prominence from SOHO (2009 May 31)
A solar prominence is a cloud of solar gas held above the Sun’s surface by the Sun’s magnetic field. In 2004, NASA’s Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft imaged an impressively large prominence hovering over the surface, pictured above. The Earth would easily fit under the hovering curtain of hot gas.