Sun Captured With Million Miles Long Plasma Plum by Photographer

October 07, 2022 By Omal J

(Image Credit Google)

A stunning image of a massive plume of plasma shooting out of the sun has been captured by an astrophotographer. According to the photographer, the fiery filament, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), extended into space more than 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from the solar surface. Andrew McCarthy, an Arizona resident and professional astrophotographer, captured the image on September 24. According to SpaceWeather.com, the CME was part of a minor solar storm — G-1 class, the lowest category on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geomagnetic Storm Scale — and was directed away from Earth. McCarthy described the ethereal ejection as the largest CME he has ever witnessed. McCarthy explained that the plasma was initially contained in a large loop connected to the sun's surface, known as a prominence, before breaking off and streaming into space at around 100,000 mph (161,000 km/h). Sun Captured With A Million Miles Long Plasma Plum by Photographer

Sun Captured With A Million Miles Long Plasma Plum by Photographer

McCarthy described the image as a false-color composite time-lapse image that stacks hundreds of thousands of images captured over a six-hour period. The sun's surface and CME appear orange in the photo, but they are not. The chromosphere (the lowest region of the sun's atmosphere) and CMEs naturally emit a type of light known as hydrogen-alpha, or H-alpha, light, which appears pinkish-red to us. However, because each image's exposure time was so short, the original images were almost completely white. McCarthy added the orange in post-production to provide contrast between individual structures on the solar surface and to highlight the CME. The sun, however, retains an eerie white halo that stands out against the dark backdrop of space because the rest of the image was not filtered with orange. Sun Captured With A Million Miles Long Plasma Plum by Photographer

CMEs have become more common in recent months as the sun enters a period of increased solar activity known as the solar maximum, which lasts approximately seven years. This will give people many more chances to capture similar images. "We'll see more of these as we head further into solar maximum," McCarthy wrote. The plasma plumes are also likely to get "progressively larger," he added. The photographer warned people against trying to observe the sun without the proper equipment. "Do not point a telescope at the sun," McCarthy wrote on Reddit. "You'll fry your camera or worse, your eyes." The telescope he used to photograph the CME was "specially modified with multiple filters" in order to safely observe the CME and capture the images, he added.

By Omal J

I worked for both print and electronic media as a feature journalist. Writing, traveling, and DIY sum up her life.

Sun Captured With Million Miles Long Plasma Plum by Photographer

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