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Two Prominences Unraveling

May 16, 2017
At the edge of the sun, a large prominence and a small prominence began to shift, turn and fall apart in less than one day, observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, May 8-9, 2017.

At the edge of the sun, a large prominence and a small prominence began to shift, turn and fall apart in less than one day (May 8-9, 2017). Prominences are notoriously unstable. Competing magnetic forces pulled the plasma back and forth until they dissipated. The images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. The 18-second video clip is comprised of almost 600 frames being shown at 30 frames per second.

Movies
PIA21634_UnravelingProminences304_big.mp4
PIA21634_UnravelingProminences304_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

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