MAYHEM The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
Spacecraft (SOHO) captured this image of a huge, curling solar prominence
as it erupted from the sun on July 1, 2002. Prominences are huge clouds
of relatively cool, dense plasma suspended in the sun's hot corona.
Magnetic fields built up enormous forces that propelled particles out beyond
the sun's surface. Emission in this spectral line shows the upper
chromosphere at a temperature of about 60,000 degrees Kelvin (107,540 degrees
Fahrenheit). NASA said the prominence appears to extend a distance of at
least 30 times the diameter of Earth but would not head toward the planet.
SOHO is a joint NASA/European Space Agency venture that observes the sun
24 hours a day.