'Because of that, 171 is a really excellent way for my brain to process in a very quick look at this. Those are tracing the direction that the magnetic field is in,' Rachmeler said.

'You see these kind of structures emanating from the edge of the disk and going out these kind of thin lines, and those are tracing the lines of magnetic fields. Structures emanate from the edge of the disk, tracing the lines of magnetic fields. The golden-hued 171 Angstrom wavelength (top right) is a favorite for Rachmeler because she has studied solar magnetic fields.Īt about 1 million degrees Kelvin, it's some of the coolest plasma in the corona. 'If the magnetic field is still connected to the sun as it was erupting, some of that filament material can actually travel back down the magnetic field and back down to the surface of the sun,' Rachmeler said. This is what's known as a partial eruption. And that happens as this massive plasma and magnetic field is slowly moving away from the sun,' Rachmeler said.Īs the video continues, the material continues to spiral as it gets pulled back down to the sun. 'As it lifts up, you see this kind of twisting or twisting motion. Rachmeler explains that the video shows a prominence or filaments erupting in the lower right corner of the sun. The CME sent a tangle of plasma hurtling out into the atmosphere while some of it is sucked back up into the sun. NOAA's GOES-18 satellite's Solar Ultraviolet Imager, or SUVI, recorded a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun in six wavelengths.

Corona weather now