(See desciption below)
Sun Hooks
Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) 304Å image of a pair of hook-shaped prominences from 11 January 1998. Material in the He II line shown here is at temperatures of 60,000 to 80,000K. These eruptions occur when a significant amount of cool dense plasma or ionized gas escapes from the normally closed, confining, low-level magnetic fields of the Sun's atmosphere to streak out into the interplanetary medium, or heliosphere. Eruptions of this sort can produce major disruptions in the near Earth environment, affecting communications, navigation systems and even power grids. The Solar and Heliosheric Obseratory (SOHO), with its uninterrupted view of the Sun, can observe such events continually, and allow us for the first time to get a better understanding of how such violent events occur.