Sun Unleashes Solar Plasma Wave Larger Than Earth

Posted by Heartmind _Featured_, Space Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

(Space.com) A giant wave of super-hot solar plasma larger than the Earth erupted from the sun on Friday (Oct. 19) in a spectacular display captured by a NASA spacecraft.

The huge solar prominence occurred at 4:15 a.m. EDT (0815 GMT) and was recorded in amazing detail by the high-definition cameras aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory before escaping the sun.

“Once it started breaking away, the process only took 10 hours before it was out of sight,” NASA media specialist Steele Hill explained in a photo description. “The prominence stretched out many times the size of Earth.”

The Solar Dynamics Observatory showed the solar prominence as a wispy red-orange wave stretching out from the lower right section of the sun. The image was recorded in the 304 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, according to Hill.