Topic: Watch it Rain on the Sun

[sam]

The big solar flare and coronal mass ejection earlier this week created an unusual event on the Sun: it rained. Not water drops of course, but coronal rain. After the eruption, blobs of plasma fell back to the surface of the Sun, sometimes making ‘splashes’ where they hit. Coronal rain is plasma gas that condenses in the corona and then descends back to the surface. It has long been a mystery and its motion has perplexed solar physicists. For some reason, coronal rain falls much slower than is expected for plasma falling due to the huge gravitational pull of the Sun. Many times, rather than falling straight down — as it would if gravity was the only force pulling on it — the plasma rain follows invisible magnetic field lines, which can be detected by instruments on board watchful spacecraft.

http://www.universetoday.com/94691/watch-it-rain-on-the-sun/

[Clive]

What an amazing picture!  It just goes to show how dynamic the Sun is.  Of course it's just as well that that particular eruption was pointing away from Earth.   

[sam]

Indeed. Though it probably would have just set off some nice aurora.

[Simon]

Great piece of film!

[Clive]

Indeed. Though it probably would have just set off some nice aurora.

But it would have been cloudy anyway.   

[sam]

True that! ISS was clouded out here.