Free Search (10912 images) Plasma on 'dark spots' Rating: 0.00/5
(0 votes cast) - Title Plasma on 'dark spots' - Released
20/08/2007 1:34 pm - Copyright JAXA/ NOAJ/ NASA/ STFC/ ESA
Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (EIS), the 'solar speed
camera' on Hinode shows plasma moving on the giant dark spots
associated with solar flares. Solar flares, massive energetic
explosions that rise up from the Sun, can damage manmade
satellites and pose a radiation hazard to astronauts. Despite
decades of study, many aspects of this phenomenon are not well-
understood. Hinode’s observations are now shedding light on
possible mechanisms that accelerate solar particles in flares.
It was known that solar flares can impact a vast area on the
Sun, sometimes leaving behind mysterious ‘dark patches’. Using
Hinode, for the first time, a speed camera has been trained on
the material in these dark areas – which can be twenty times the
diameter of the Earth. The material flowing from the dark patch
in the wake of the flare has been