It may be hard to remember what a sunny day feels like, in the midst of the cold, gray winter many are experiencing, so feast your eyes on this:
It was taken this morning by the Solar Heliospheric Observatory, a cooperative venture of NASA and the European Space Agency. That plume off the top right is called a prominence. Its a loop of plasma extending from the surface of the sun.
Apparently, the sun doesn’t need spots to unleash a solar flare. On Saturday, with not a single spot in sight, the sun released a strong solar flare that registered B3.8 on the Richter scale of solar flares. A jet of highly energized particles, called a coronal mass ejection, was spotted billowing away from the sun a short time later.
Usually, such flares stem from sunspots, which are highly magnetized areas on the surface of the sun. This time, the magnetism was not intense enough to form a spot. The CME may pass close enough by Earth on Monday or Tuesday to color northern skies with aurora.
Here's a short film clip of a rather impressive solar flare -- not Saturday's outburst, but you'll get the idea:
Irene Klotz Discovery News space correspondent Irene Klotz chronicles humanity's efforts to leave the planet. One day, she wants to see for herself what all the fuss is about.
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