solar prominence

Just as the moon begins to totally cover up the sun, titanic flares called solar prominences become visible, peeking out from the edge of the darkening disk.

Violent solar storms produce brilliant flares that disrupt radio communications on Earth; and immense arching plumes of hot gas, guided by the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar prominences, which dwarf the Earth.

It is generally assumed that sunspots, solar prominences, the bright clouds known as faculæ, and other phenomena denoting a perturbed state of the solar atmosphere, are due to some cause within the sun.

Vast loops of gas can be seen in the image, looking like the ejecta of stars known as solar prominences.

The eruptions lasted approximately 90 minutes and created a huge tendril of plasma, known as a solar prominence.