File:Prominence_ESA423294.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, solar prominence is referenced by 773 other articles, and connects out to list of solar eclipses in the 20th century, spicule and Sun.
It is catalogued under the topic Solar phenomena.
Its subject is documented across 46 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- phenomenon
- Part of
- Sun
- Material used
- hydrogen
- Image
- Giant prominence on the sun erupted.jpg
- Length
- 50000
Show 3 more facts
- Commons category
- Prominences
- studied by
- astrophysics
- temperature
- 10000
via Wikidata · CC0
~14 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Solar prominence seen in true color during totality of a solar eclipse. In solar physics, a prominence, sometimes referred to as a filament, is a large plasma and magnetic field structure extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the much brighter photosphere, and extend outwards into the solar corona. While the corona consists of extremely hot plasma, prominences contain much cooler plasma, similar in composition to that of the chromosphere. Like the corona, solar prominences are only visible to the naked eye during a total solar eclipse.
Prominences form over timescales of about a day and may persist in the corona for several weeks or months, looping hundreds of thousands of kilometers into space. Some prominences may give rise to coronal mass ejections. Exact mechanism of prominence generation is an ongoing target of scientific research.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “solar prominence” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.