A series of three significant coronal mass ejections (CMEs) occurred within
The Sun ended 2004 with a bang, firing off one of the most unusual eruptions
scientists have ever seen.
The complex eruption is called a coronal mass ejection (CME). It originated from a region of the solar surface where pent-up magnetic energy was unleashed. Superheated gas, called plasma, was flung into space. All that is normal.
But in this case, several white strands of plasma elongated and lingered "longer than anyone can remember seeing," said Paal Brekke of the Norwegian Space Center. The strands were visible to scientists over a nine-hour stretch.
"The pieces appear almost like shreds of torn clothing after something ripped through it," Brekke said. "They clearly illustrate how a CME drags pieces of the Suns magnetic field out in space."
In this picture, the overwhelming light of the Sun's main disk is blocked out by an instrument aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, allowing it to capture the action in the solar atmosphere and beyond.
-- Robert
Roy Britt
Credit: NASA/ESA/SOHO
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