APOD: 2022 February 16 – Eiffel Tower Prominence on the Sun



Explanation:
What’s that on the Sun?

Although it may look like a flowing version of the
Eiffel Tower,
it is a
solar prominence that is actually much bigger — about the
height of Jupiter.

The huge prominence
emerged about ten days ago, hovered over the
Sun’s surface for about two days,
and then erupted — throwing a
coronal mass ejection (CME) into the Solar System.

The featured video,
captured from the astrophotographer’s backyard in
Hendersonville,
Tennessee,
USA, shows an hour time-lapse played both forwards and backwards.

That CME did not impact the Earth, but our Sun had
unleashed
other recent CMEs that not only triggered
Earthly auroras, but puffed out the
Earth’s atmosphere enough to
cause just-launched
Starlink satellites to
fall back.

Activity on the Sun, including
sunspots,
prominences, CMEs and
flares, continues to increase as the
Sun evolves away from a deep
minimum in its 11-year
magnetic cycle.