Solar fleet peers into coronal cavities
Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 16:01
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org)—The sun's atmosphere dances. Giant columns of solar material – made of gas so hot that many of the electrons have been scorched off the atoms, turning it into a form of magnetized matter we call plasma – leap off the sun's surface, jumping and twisting. Sometimes these prominences of solar material, shoot off, escaping completely into space, other times they fall back down under their own weight.