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Something unprecedented happened on the Sun
An incredibly huge plume of plasma was ejected into space from the sun’s south pole‚ where eruptions almost never occur. The explosion captured in the image is a sign that the Sun is on the verge of its most active phase – solar maximum‚ writes LiveScience .
The rare phenomenon occurred during a solar flare from a sunspot located near the south pole of the Sun. A giant column of gas or plasma was thrown into space‚ which rose 15 thousand km above the surface of the star.
The plasma then broke away from the surface and flew into space as a coronal mass ejection (CME).
The process was captured by astrophotographer Eduardo Schaberger Pupo. The image was taken before the plasma plume broke away from the solar surface.
“The resulting column of plasma was so huge that I had to change the position of the camera to fit the object into the frame‚” says the astrophotographer.
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A post shared by Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau (@eduardoschaberger)
The uniqueness of this explosion lies in the fact that it occurred in a very unusual place – it occurred at the South Pole of the Sun. Most sunspot explosions occur at or around the star’s equator—near the magnetic poles‚ where the magnetic field is strongest.
Due to the location of the flare‚ the coronal mass ejection was not directed towards Earth or other planets in the solar system.
Experts believe that this unusual eruption is due to what science knows to be the filament of the polar corona. It is a loop of magnetism that revolves around the magnetic poles of the Sun. The plasma plume ejected by the flare is known as a polar corona prominence.
Such prominences become common during solar maximum‚ which is the most active phase of the 11-year solar cycle. At this stage‚ the loops of magnetism tighten like a noose around the poles. When such loops compress‚ they choke nearby magnetic fields‚ increasing the likelihood of explosions.
According to experts‚ solar maximum will occur in the next few months‚ earlier than expected.
The post Something unprecedented happened on the Sun appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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