Huge Solar Filament Rupture Last Night September 29, 2013 abovetopsecret/forum/thread973777/pg1 "Filaments are formed in magnetic loops that hold relatively cool, dense gas suspended above the surface of the Sun," explains David Hathaway, a solar physicist at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "When you look down on top of them they appear dark because the gas inside is cool compared to the hot photosphere below. But when we see a filament in profile against the dark sky it looks like a giant glowing loop -- these are called prominences and they can be spectacular." Filaments last for a few weeks or months. The gas in a filament will eventually move to a different layer in the Sun and will no longer be visible in an image of the chromosphere. But at the same time, other gas may move into the chromosphere and create a new filament someplace else. The birth and death of filaments is a mystery and the subject of ongoing study by solar scientists.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 23:02:56 +0000
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