Huge ‘Tornado’ on the Sun

Huge ‘Tornado’ on the Sun:

Spectacular rotation of material from solar prominences and the coronal cavities on September 25, 2011. Credit: NASA/Dr. Xing Li, Dr. Huw Morgan and Mr. Drew Leonard.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images and video of a spectacular rotation of material from the Sun in a solar prominence. The whirling, dancing prominence created a massive tornado-like feature on the Sun, five times bigger than the Earth. “This is perhaps the first time that such a huge solar tornado is filmed by an imager,” said Dr. Xing Li of Aberystwyth University, presenting his team’s work at the National Astronomy Meeting this week in the UK. “The superb spatial and temporal resolution of SDO allows us to observe the solar atmosphere in great detail.”
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© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments |
Post tags: Missions, Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), sun

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