Prominence eruption plus one (September 13, 2013)

Hi-res TIF (2.0M)

Movies: QT: Large (2.2M), Small (606K), MPEG (3.5M), MP4 (3.8M), M4V (1.0M)

The Sun let loose with two different eruptions in less than a day (Sept. 10-11, 2013). By far the larger event was a solar prominence that can be seen breaking away from the Sun and expanding into a bright cloud of particles to the lower left of the Sun. For the second, smaller event (to the right) a smaller blob of plasma, likely from the far side of the Sun, holds its shape as it moves across the field of view without expanding very much. We have combined images from the Sun itself in extreme UV light from SDO with the larger coronagraph view from SOHO (red background).

The images were taken by SOHO's coronagraphs in which a disk (black) blocks the Sun and some of the area around it so we can see faint structures beyond that. Here we superimposed the Sun from NASA's SDO. The movie covers about five hours of activity.

SOHO began its Weekly Pick some time after sending a weekly image or video clip to the American Museum of Natural History (Rose Center) in New York City. There, the SOHO Weekly Pick is displayed with some annotations on a large plasma display.

If your institution would also like to receive the same Weekly Pick from us for display (usually in Photoshop or QuickTime format), please send your inquiry to steele.hill@gsfc.nasa.gov.