NASA captured a plasma plume as it rose up from the sun which at times resembled the Eiffel Tower in shape. The plume was visible from Aug. 17 to 19, twisting and spinning to a height many times taller than the Earth's diameter.
The agency's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the burst of hot plasma, noting that other particle streams and lesser plumes were also present at the time as well on the sun's surface. The plume was observed using the 304 wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light.
Also referred to as a solar prominence, a filament viewed against the sun's disk, the plume is a large structure composed of magnetized plasma that erupted from the chromosphere of the sun, arcing high into the corona. Plasma within the sun's corona has a temperature exceeding a million degrees Celsius but plasma in prominences are about a hundred times cooler, registering a temperature that is similar to what the chromosphere has.
As plasma in a prominence or plume is cooler compared to the surrounding corona, it generates visible light, which is easy to spot although specialized equipment like eclipse glasses and solar telescopes are still needed. It also helps that the sun is high in ionized hydrogen. This allows astronomers to take advantage of hydrogen alpha filters in producing stunningly detailed observations of prominences as well as chromospheric features present on the sun's disk.
Aside from NASA, astrophotographer Göran Strand also observed the Eiffel Tower-like plume from his backyard in Sweden using a portable solar telescope. He was simply checking out the sun to see if anything interesting was going on so he was quite surprised to discover the towering prominence.
"This big prominence got my attention right away, even in my small 50mm telescope it was a beautiful sight," he said.
After his initial look, Strand set up a larger Lunt 80mm hydrogen alpha solar telescope that's pressure-tuned while connected to a Point Grey Grasshopper 3 camera. He took thousands of photos of the prominence, stacking 300 of the best shots he got to create his own solar portrait of the event. He include the Earth's size to give a sense of scale. Roughly, the prominence is as tall as seven of the Earth's diameter.
