Solar Coronal Mass Ejection (1998)

Our Sun will sometimes, for reasons not entirely understood, eject huge amounts of matter, mostly electrons and protons, from its atmosphere, the "corona". These are known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). This one occurred on 29 March 1998.

The sun's corona is studied through a special camera on NASA's solar-orbiting observatory, SOHO. The camera (called "LASCO") has an occulting disk to block out the bright sphere of the sun so that the relatively dim corona can be observed. The blue disk in the center of this image is the occulting disk.

Credit: Courtesy of SOHO/LASCO consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. [source].

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