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Small Twisting Prominence

Jan. 12, 2018
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory observed a small prominence rose up above the sun, appeared to twist around for several hours, and then began to send some streams of plasma back into the sun (Jan. 3-4, 2018).

A small prominence rose up above the sun, appeared to twist around for several hours, and then began to send some streams of plasma back into the sun (Jan. 3-4, 2018). The action, observed in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, lasted just about one day. Prominences like this one are quite common. In fact, there were several over the past few days. For a sense of scale, the prominence reached up more than several times the size of Earth.

Movies
PIA22198_Small_prom_twist_big.mp4
PIA22198_Small_prom_twist_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

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