What looks like a wide “handle” at the upper right edge of the Sun’s disk is actually a massive eruption of super-heated gas known as plasma. The structure is known as a solar prominence, and it’s powered by the Sun’s magnetic field. This one rises roughly 200,000 miles above the Sun’s surface, which is a quarter of the Sun’s diameter and about 25 times the diameter of Earth. [ESA/NASA/SOHO]
Find out more in our radio program entitled Prominent Sun.