Posted on 02/26/2013 4:02:25 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Does it rain on the Sun? Yes, although what falls is not water but extremely hot plasma. An example occurred in mid-July 2012 after an eruption on the Sun that produced both a Coronal Mass Ejection and a moderate solar flare. What was more unusual, however, was what happened next. Plasma in the nearby solar corona was imaged cooling and falling back, a phenomenon known as coronal rain. Because they are electrically charged, electrons, protons, and ions in the rain were gracefully channeled along existing magnetic loops near the Sun's surface, making the scene appear as a surreal three-dimensional sourceless waterfall. The resulting surprisingly-serene spectacle is shown in ultraviolet light and highlights matter glowing at a temperature of about 50,000 Kelvin. Each second in the above time lapse video takes about 6 minutes in real time, so that the entire coronal rain sequence lasted about 10 hours.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit: Video Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, SVS, GSFC, NASA; Music: Thunderbolt by Lars Leonhard]
Clicked, watched the whole video. Fascinating.....and quite beautiful.
Hey SunkenCiv...did I “fall off” your ping list???
Thanks!
Amazing....thanks for posting.
Very nice pic.
But why does that remind me of Wendy O Williams?
Wow. That is like watching a spectacular ballet. I loved the “Earth to scale” segment of the video. It’s a bit scary, really.
Thank you, Mr. Civilizations.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.