A photo voltaic prominence hovers over the Sun

The Sun is all the time mesmerising to observe, however Solar Orbiter captured a particular deal with on digital camera: a darkish ‘prominence’ protruding from the facet of the Sun.   

The dark-looking materials is dense plasma (charged fuel) trapped by the Sun’s advanced magnetic subject. It appears darkish as a result of it’s cooler than its environment, being round 10 000 °C in comparison with the encompassing million-degree plasma.  

When seen towards the background of area, the hovering plasma is known as a prominence. When seen towards the Sun’s floor, it’s referred to as a filament. (In this picture you’ll be able to see examples of each.) 

Solar prominences and filaments lengthen for tens of 1000’s of kilometres, a number of occasions the diameter of Earth. They can final days and even months. This video exhibits one hour of footage, sped as much as make motion extra clearly seen.  

Solar Orbiter recorded this video with its Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument on 17 March 2025. At the time, the spacecraft was round 63 million km from the Sun, much like planet Mercury. 

Solar Orbiter is an area mission of worldwide collaboration between ESA and NASA. The EUI instrument is led by the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB). 

[Video description: Close-up video of the Sun, filling the left half of the view, its surface covered what looks like moving, glowing hairs accompanied by some short-lived bright arcs. Protruding to the right, in the centre of the video, is dark material that looks almost feathery, with thin streaks flowing both away from and towards the Sun.]