Record Prominence Imaged by Solar Orbiter
What's happened to our Sun? Last month, it produced the largest prominence ever imaged together with a complete solar disk . The record image, featured , was captured in ultraviolet light by the Sun-orbiting Solar Orbiter spacecraft . A quiescent solar prominence is a cloud of hot gas held above the Sun's surface by the Sun's magnetic field . This solar prominence was huge -- spanning a length rivaling the diameter of the Sun itself. Solar prominences may erupt unpredictably and expel hot gas into the Solar System via a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). When a CME strikes the Earth and its magnetosphere , bright auroras may occur . This prominence did produce a CME , but it was directed well away from the Earth. Although surely related to the Sun's changing magnetic field, the energy mechanism that creates and sustains a solar prominence remains a topic of research .