A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence (APOD 01 Jun 2008)
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- Science Officer
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A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence (APOD 01 Jun 2008)
Hello All,
I don't know about any of you but although I'm not particularly blown around by much in the world I found this particular APOD rather terrifying. I saw what I thought was the true nature of the Sun and it's power and how amazingly uncanny that life exists even in spite of it's fragility.
In this view the Sun looks anything but stable and the hot band around the Equator looks ready to separate the N&S hemispheres. I have developed a new regard for magnetic fields and gravity, not too mention an increase in my wonder of things at the level of Quantum Mechanics. Especially in bodies as large as our Sun and it's processes.
I don't know about any of you but although I'm not particularly blown around by much in the world I found this particular APOD rather terrifying. I saw what I thought was the true nature of the Sun and it's power and how amazingly uncanny that life exists even in spite of it's fragility.
In this view the Sun looks anything but stable and the hot band around the Equator looks ready to separate the N&S hemispheres. I have developed a new regard for magnetic fields and gravity, not too mention an increase in my wonder of things at the level of Quantum Mechanics. Especially in bodies as large as our Sun and it's processes.
"Everything matters.....So may the facts be with you"-astrolabe
- orin stepanek
- Plutopian
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http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080601.html
It does look a little intimidating at that!
When the sun ejects material like that; it makes me wonder just what happens to the ejecta. I'm sure much of it falls back toward the sun; but surely some of it goes off into orbit. After cooling down; does it become just radiation or maybe some solid material becomes the building blocks of meteors, asteroids, comets, etc.?
Orin
It does look a little intimidating at that!
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
![Confused :?](./images/smilies/icon_confused.gif)
Orin
Orin
Smile today; tomorrow's another day!
Smile today; tomorrow's another day!
interesting though, how the apparent convergent banding in the image resembles the banding of Venusian clouds http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planet ... 790226.jpg
Well, whatever doesn't fall back to the Sun will tend to get blown outwards by radiation pressure, effectively becoming part of the solar wind, I'd assume.orin stepanek wrote:http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080601.html
It does look a little intimidating at that!When the sun ejects material like that; it makes me wonder just what happens to the ejecta. I'm sure much of it falls back toward the sun; but surely some of it goes off into orbit. After cooling down; does it become just radiation or maybe some solid material becomes the building blocks of meteors, asteroids, comets, etc.?
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Orin
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
Re: A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence
Yikes! Me, too. How many thousands (?) of miles did this prominence protrude out from the sun? Or, put another way, what percentage of, say, the distance to Mercury's orbit did it protrude?astrolabe wrote:
I found this particular APOD rather terrifying..
Are there even larger prominences on record?
Cherie
Re: A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence
Just doing a rough measurement using the APoD image puts it at about half a million kilometers tall, which I think is a pretty big prominence. That's slightly less than 1% of Mercury's average orbital distance, though.Cherie wrote:Yikes! Me, too. How many thousands (?) of miles did this prominence protrude out from the sun? Or, put another way, what percentage of, say, the distance to Mercury's orbit did it protrude?astrolabe wrote:
I found this particular APOD rather terrifying..
Are there even larger prominences on record?
Cherie
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
Which color?
Are the light colored splotches or the orange colored ones hotter?