APOD: A Solar Filament Erupts (2014 Jul 20)

[APOD Robot]

A Solar Filament Erupts

Explanation: What's happened to our Sun? Nothing very unusual -- it just threw a filament. Toward the middle of 2012, a long standing solar filament suddenly erupted into space producing an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The filament had been held up for days by the Sun's ever changing magnetic field and the timing of the eruption was unexpected. Watched closely by the Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, the resulting explosion shot electrons and ions into the Solar System, some of which arrived at Earth three days later and impacted Earth's magnetosphere, causing visible aurorae. Loops of plasma surrounding an active region can be seen above the erupting filament in the ultraviolet image. Over the past week the number of sunspots visible on the Sun unexpectedly dropped to zero, causing speculation that the Sun has now passed a very unusual solar maximum, the time in the Sun's 11-year cycle when it is most active.

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[hoohaw]

The strength of gravity at the "surface" of the Sun is very large! To throw up such a thing so high takes enormous energy!

[neufer]

The strength of gravity at the "surface" of the Sun is very large!
To throw up such a thing so high takes enormous energy!

<<Coronal mass ejections escape the Sun with an average speed of 489km/s [comparable to an equivalent surface velocity of ~800 km/s]. The average mass is 1.6×10¹²kg [~10 times the mass of the Great Wall of China]. The values are only lower limits, because coronagraph measurements provide only two-dimensional data analysis. The frequency of ejections depends on the phase of the solar cycle: from about one every fifth day near the solar minimum to 3.5 per day near the solar maximum. These values are also lower limits because ejections propagating away from Earth (backside CMEs) can usually not be detected by coronagraphs.

Because the energy of CMEs is so high, it is unlikely that their energy could be directly driven by emerging magnetic fields in the photosphere (although this is still a possibility). Therefore, most models of CMEs assume that the energy is stored up in the coronal magnetic field over a long period of time and then suddenly released by some instability or a loss of equilibrium in the field. There is still no consensus on which of these release mechanisms is correct, and observations are not currently able to constrain these models very well.>>

[Boomer12k]

WOW!!!!
For being so HOT....that is soooooo COOL!!!!

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[Boomer12k]

The strength of gravity at the "surface" of the Sun is very large! To throw up such a thing so high takes enormous energy!

I believe it has nothing to do with the gravity of the Sun. It is Energy...not so much as "Solar Mass" of elements like Hydrogen, Helium, and Oxygen, etc....
The magnetic field DRAWS electrons and photons, making up the "flames", and The Sun's Mass, does not "pull down" on that, so much as IT IS A PART OF THE SURFACE. (It extends up from the surface, so acts like a "energy mountain".) Thus, the Electrons and photons TRAVEL along the lines of magnetic flow, and during Magnetic Reconnection, a process, "Magnetic reconnection is the name given to the rearrangement of magnetic field lines when two oppositely directed magnetic fields are brought together. This rearrangement is accompanied with a sudden release of energy stored in the original oppositely directed fields." Then RELEASES THE ENERGY.....those electrons, photons, etc...are released. Think of the Magnetic Fields as WIRES...conducting Electrons...in a LOOP, they build, when the energy becomes too great, it can burst, and release all that.

The Earth's gravity would be stronger than any PHYSICAL MASS on the planet, thus making it FALL BACK to Earth....but FLAMES IN A FIRE RISE ON THEIR OWN....they are an emanating ENERGY.....very little wood mass... but the release of LIGHT...HEAT IS LIGHTWAVES....ASK ANN....And so it goes out basically at the speed of light...and unless there is a Black Hole.....it will continue outward.

Anyway, for what it is worth, that is my take on this. It is ENERGY MASS...not so much PHYSICAL MASS.....

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[DavidLeodis]

The video brought up through the "shot" link is awesome. The scene as seen by the SOHO at about 22 seconds and 18 seconds remaining is particularly awesome.

[Chris Peterson]

Anyway, for what it is worth, that is my take on this. It is ENERGY MASS...not so much PHYSICAL MASS.....

The physical mass is being ejected from the surface of the Sun at high speed. Gravity is acting on it at all times. If it is ejected at greater than the surface escape velocity (618 km/s) it passes through the Solar System as a coronal mass ejection or some form of solar wind. Most material never reaches that velocity, and falls back, under the influence of gravity and local magnetic fields.

While the Sun is powered by the conversion of mass into energy, everything we're seeing here is understandable as the behavior of physical mass under the influence of force fields- gravity and EM.

[rencheple]

I follow this daily picture for the amazing images, but am curious about something. The article says that the ejected ions and electrons took three days to impact the earth. Doesn't that mean that they were traveling at something slightly less than .2% the speed of light? Shouldn't subatomic particles be moving much faster than that?

[Chris Peterson]

I follow this daily picture for the amazing images, but am curious about something. The article says that the ejected ions and electrons took three days to impact the earth. Doesn't that mean that they were traveling at something slightly less than .2% the speed of light? Shouldn't subatomic particles be moving much faster than that?

As particles with significant rest mass, they can exist at any speed less than c. These particles were part of plasma ejected at several hundred kilometers per second.

[rencheple]

Thank you!