spectacular solar prominences...

SPECTACULAR PROMINENCE: A magnificent filament of magnetism is rotating over the northeastern limb of the sun. Amateur astronomer Jett Aguilar sends this picture from Quezon City, the Philippines:

.

"I was lucky to image this beautiful caterpillar-like structure through a break in the clouds," says Aguilar. That's some caterpillar: As the inset picture of Earth shows, the prominence is large enough to swallow our planet more than 50 times over.

This is a type of prominence more commonly called a "hedgerow prominence." Hot glowing plasma inside the structure is held aloft by unstable solar magnetic fields. NASA and Japanese space telescopes have taken high resolution images of of similar prominences and seen some amazing things such as (1) tadpole-shaped plumes that float up from the base of the prominence; (2) narrow streams of plasma that descend from the top like waterfalls; and (3) swirls and vortices that resemble van Gogh's Starry Night.