Click for movie. Also available on YouTube.
The Coolest Plasmas Form the Hottest Trends
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The Hinode XRT composite synoptic image above shows an interesting linear feature crossing the Sun. The high, bright, X-ray loops are actually surrounding some of the coolest plasma within the corona that we call a filament. Filmanets are regions of cool plasma suspended high in the corona. It must take a lot of energy to keep filaments on the Sun because the X-rays filled loops holding down the filament are extremely hot (10 Million degrees). When the overlying loops break, the filament gets launched, taking most of the surrounding corona that scientists dub a coronal mass ejection (CME). You may have noticed that the bright circular feature in the north is also a filament wrapped around an active region.
The movie shows Hinode XRT with the National Solar Observatory's (NSO) NISP H-alpha image taken at the Learmonth Solar Observatory, Austrailia.
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(Prepared by Patricia Jibben)
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