On April 19, AIA observed one of the largest prominence eruptions in years. The huge structure erupts, but a great deal of the plasma (hundreds of millions of tons) is unable to escape the gravitational pull of the Sun and falls back down as "plasma rain." As the rain impacts the surface, bright flashes can be seen as the momentum is absorbed on impact. SDO is the first observatory to capture both the rain and the impacts, allowing us to learn a great deal from observations like this.
The
Images and Video's in the gallery pages may be protected by
copyright. You may download one copy for non-commercial personal
use to be displayed on your personal computer. Use other then
non-commercial requires that you obtain permission if
copyrighted from the copyright holder. See disclaimer page for
more detail. We will help direct you to the proper source if you
are unsure of copyright holder or your usage. Please always state
proper source / credit.
