ESA released a photo of a coronal ejection on the Sun

European Space Agency (ESA) published amazing detailed photo of a coronal mass ejection on the Sun. It equally clearly shows both a massive plasma clot (they are called prominences) and the entire star. It was the first time that it was possible to capture both the Sun and a prominence of this size in one image: as a rule, such photos do not show the star as a whole, which makes it more difficult to perceive the scale of the phenomenon.

Unlike solar flares, in which energy is abruptly released and then reabsorbed by the Sun, an eruption prominence ejects huge concentrations of plasma into space - usually in an arc formed by a gravitational field stars. Another difference from a solar flare is its duration: a prominence eruption can last several weeks or even months.

This picture is the result of a lucky coincidence. On February 15, when this ejection occurred, the Solar Orbiter spacecraft was at a sufficiently large distance from the Sun, which made it possible to capture the whole picture. The direction of the prominence relative to the shooting location also turned out to be ideal: an ejection towards the Earth could cause interruptions in the operation of the apparatus.