A large solar prominence was captured by an astrophotographer that showed the sun spewing a giant cloud of plasma into space, according to a report published Monday.
The video, captured by astrophotographer Miguel Claro in Portugal in July, showed the sun spouting the plasma in an expulsion called a coronal mass ejection.
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“As soon as I realized that a huge prominence was visible and growing so fast and drastically, I quickly start shooting,” Claro said in a social media post. “It is impressive, the motion of the prominence in the time lapse, which seems to end up swirling like a tornado.”
A solar prominence is a large, bright feature that extends from the surface of the sun. Prominences are anchored to the sun’s surface in the photosphere and extend out into the sun’s coronasphere, meaning the sun’s outer atmosphere, according to NASA. A coronal mass ejection is a form of solar prominence.
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Claro claimed he had about one hour of footage, but the sun was lower on the horizon than ideal because it was 6 p.m. local time, and a cloud of dust from Africa was visible. Claro added that he does not normally capture footage of the sun so late in the day but made an exception for the ejection.
