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PLASMA FALLS: Imagine a waterfall made of hot plasma falling from a precipice tall enough to swallow Earth 10 times. Here it is:
"I had the privilege of observing and photographing this magnificent wall of plasma on March 9th," says photographer Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau of Rafaela, Argentina. "It rose some 100,000 km above the solar surface. On my computer screen it looked like hundreds of threads of plasma were dripping down a wall. It really was a spectacle that left me speechless."
These structures have been seen on the sun many times before. They frequently appear in rings around the sun's poles, and are called "polar crown prominences." Researchers still don't fully understand them. Mysteriously, the plasma threads Poupeau noted plummet faster than ambient magnetic forces seem to allow. Nuclear engineers would like to figure out how this happens, because it also happens on a smaller scale in fusion reactors on Earth, frustrating their efforts to sustain an energy-producing reaction. Studies of these prominences could lead to practical breakthroughs here on Earth.
The plasma is still falling today. Amateur astronomers with solar telescopes can see the structure on the sun's southeastern limb, right here. Take a look!
more images: from David Leong of Hong Kong; from Rossana Miani of Padova, Italy; from David Wilson of Inverness, Scotland; from Martin Wise of Trenton, Florida;
A BUTTERFLY CME: A strange coronal mass ejection (CME) just left the sun. It unfolded like the wings of a butterfly:
Above: A SOHO coronagraph movie of a 'butterfly CME'
Most CMEs look like a smoke ring or a halo.This one was different. We will never know what kind of explosion gave rise to its insectoid shape, because the blast site was on the farside of the sun. The sun itself blocked our view.
This farside CME will not touch Earth. The gossamer wings will, however, strike Mercury on March 10th, according to a NASA model. If the CME overwhelms Mercury's relatively weak magnetic field, it could scour material off the planet's surface creating a temporary atmosphere and adding material to Mercury's comet-like tail.
Note: The starlike object at the 4 o'clock position in the coronagraph movie is Mercury. (Earlier today it was incorrectly labeled "Jupiter.")
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NORTHERN LIGHTS SPACE PENDANT: Every time the students of Earth to Sky Calculus launch cosmic ray sensors to the stratosphere, they send a little something extra along for the ride. For example, this Northern Lights pendant:
On Dec. 6th, it flew 107,612 feet above the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains of central California. You can have it for $129.95. The students are selling these pendants as a fund-raiser for their cosmic ray monitoring program. They make great anniversary, birthday and Mother's Day gifts. Each pendant comes with a greeting card showing the jewelry in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
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