- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Another cloud free day in Scotland let me catch almost 9 hours of this huge and lively prom. Taken with my home made 90mm modded Coronado PST and DMK21 camera. Software: CdC, Eqmod, DSSR, AutoStakkert!, Wavesharp, DVS, Shotcut and Gimp.
David Wilson on April 8, 2025 @ Inverness, Scotland
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=221951
So dumb question, but what’s causing the gap between the plasma cloud(?) and the surface? And is that gap filled with something that is invisible?
The dynamics there due to sheer gravity, magnetism and levels of energy/radiation that are utterly alien to our daily experience.
I get some of the basic underlying mechanics, but I absolutely cannot comprehend it. Incredible.
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Doesn’t it also make the Cepheid noticeably swell (then deflate) in circumference? Or does it maintain the same basic size, and it’s just storing magnetic bubbles of hot plasma like a halo, before bursting and releasing all that accumulated material?
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That gap is actually magnetic field lines suspending the plasma above the surface - its like the plasma is “riding” along magnetic highways in the sun’s atmosphere, and the space between isnt empty but filled with less dense solar atmosphere thats invisible at this wavelenght.
Plasma is electrically charged, so it interacts with magnetic lines.
The sun has magnetic field lines just as the earth does. It also rotates. But- since it’s not solid, it doesn’t have to rotate all at the same speed. The plasma in fast-rotating regions drags the field lines further than the plasma in slow rotating areas, creating weird loops, breaks and reconnections in the field lines. I’m almost certain that what we’re seeing in this lovely bit of photography is a cloud of plasma travelling across, or trapped by one of those rogue field lines which has been pushed upwards from the surface by differential rotation.
Nuh-uh, come on, that can’t be real. So cool.
Even cooler: solar flares and mass ejections come about when one of the lines snaps like a whip and hurls billions of tonnes of plasma into space. Search: solar magnetic reconnection.
I see words in this thread but don’t understand, but are you saying here that those streams / clouds are taught? In order to be snapped.
Yes, the material the streams are made of is magnetic, and there is a strong and unusual magnetic field around the sun. So those streams are trapped by magnetism.
That’s fascinating. Thank you for sharing!