Astrophotos: Crazy Solar Prominences

By Nancy Atkinson - June 25, 2012 at 2:39 PM UTC | Solar Astronomy
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We've got three cool images of the hot Sun submitted by various astrophotographers! Raymond Gilchrist enhanced his image from June 23, 2012 of three solar prominences using Inspire Pro on his iPad. He used different colors to differentiate the the various "strands" of the prominences, which highlights the "texture" of these huge solar features. See more of Raymond's great astrophotos at his

Flickr page.

See more below:

Renown Australian amateur astronomy Month Leventhal captured this pyramid-shaped prominence on the NW limb of the Sun, which reaches an approximate height of 93,000km! Wow! Monty took this image early today (June 25, 2012) using a Canon 600D camera, H-alpha 6Å filter and a Meade S.C. 10 inch telescope.

This is an awesome look at the Sun on June 16th from Efrain Morales Rivera from the Jaicoa Observatory in Puerto Rico. Visible are a huge prominence, several active regions, (AR1504, 5, 7 & 8), and interesting filaments. At the time this image was taken, Efrain noted that AR1504 had developed a 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong solar flares. See more at the

Jaicoa Observatory website.

Lead image caption: Solar Prominences, imaged edited with Inspire Pro. Credit: Raymond Gilchrist. Second image caption: Prominence on the NW limb reaching an approximate height of 93,000km. Credit: Monty Leventhal. Third image caption: Several sunspots, prominences and filaments on the Sun on June 16th 13:27UT. Credit: Efrain Morales Rivera, Jaicoa Observatory

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com