August 7, 2012
We usually do "Cool Photo of the Week" only during the school year, but this photograph is too spectacular to pass up.
This is a shot of a huge storm on the surface of the sun. The storm is 93 thousand miles high (about 150 thousand kilometers). The tornado-like plasma twister is about 10 to 12 times taller than the diameter of planet Earth. That’s right - it is spurting 12 Earths high!
The huge sun storm, called a prominence, spiraled up from the surface of the sun on July 12, split into 4 strands and twisted into a knot before fading away. The entire storm lasted just a few hours.
You can read lots more about the star at the center of our solar system in my book THE SUN. Find it at your local library this summer!
Photo: NASA/SDO/GSFC
Posted by: Seymour Simon
