Pink sun flame in a NASA image of the eclipse.  What is this?

The total solar eclipse in April was not visible from Poland. They can be seen, among others, in parts of the United States. After the phenomenon occurred, photos and videos spread quickly around the world, showing the moon “covering” the face of a star in the solar system. One of the images made available by NASA is attracting attention due to the interesting structures captured in the image.

In one of the photos of the solar eclipse, taken by Keegan Barber, one of NASA's photographers, you can see very interesting structures. They mention Pink flames emerging from a star's corona It exceeds the area of ​​the moon that it covers. It sounds so amazing, but what is it?

The effect can be seen in the image above, and some of you may be saying that NASA managed to capture solar flares in the image. No, this time we're not dealing with a coronal mass ejection, but with something else. In fact, this is a phenomenon well known to scientists.

What you see in Barber's image is the sun's pink envelope. The effect not only occurs during an eclipse, but under normal circumstances it is not visible to the human eye. It can only be seen when the disk is covered by the moon, without the need to use advanced telescopes.

The phenomenon itself is in the form of a pink flame the fame. They are created through them Structural plasmaWhich “escapes” from the surface of the star. In fact, they can stay there as long as possible Long weeks or even months.

In the photo the structures appear relatively small. However, let's not forget the size of the entire Sun and what the “pink flame” captured in the NASA image can do. Take dimensions larger than the Earth – Even several times.

The question remains to be answered: Why are these “fires” pink? This is due to its composition containing hydrogen. When it is exposed to high temperatures, it takes on this color.

The phenomenon of prominence can be so great that it can be It can be seen even from a distance of 160 million kilometers. It is more than one astronomical unit that determines the average distance of the Earth from the Sun (less than 150 million kilometers). Out of curiosity, it should be noted that our planet is closest to the star of the solar system during perihelion. Then the distance decreases to 147.106 million kilometers. In the case of Mars, the differences are greater due to the different shape of the orbit. In this case, the distance ranges from approximately 207 to 249 million kilometers.

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