What's the difference between a solar flare and solar prominence?
Question:
Do they look the same ?
Answer:
es traveling along the sun's magnetic field lines along the surface of that star. They usually form huge loops and are visible from spacecraft monitoring them. They then recede back along magnetic field lines.
A solar flare, is an explosion in the suns' chromosphere that launches radiation, superheated gas and particles speeding toward the Earth in the solar wind. These flares, sometimes called solar storms, are what cause the extreme aurora near the poles, and smash against and are deflected by our magnetic field.
A solar prominence is an eruption of gas and particles traveling along the sun's magnetic field lines along the surface of that star. They usually form huge loops and are visible from spacecraft monitoring them. They then recede back along magnetic field lines.
A solar flare, is an explosion in the suns' chromosphere that launches radiation, superheated gas and particles speeding toward the Earth in the solar wind. These flares, sometimes called solar storms, are what cause the extreme aurora near the poles, and smash against and are deflected by our magnetic field.
I hope I explained this clearly.
The previous answer gave good definitions, but didn't say what they looked like. I view the Sun every day with my Coronado Personal Solar Telescope, which shows only light from the alpha line of Hydrogen. I see prominences nearly every day: wisps or arches coming off the edge of the Sun, silhouetted against the black of space beyond. Solar flares are much more rare, and appear as very bright areas on the surface of the Sun, often close to sunspots (which appear black).
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