SpaceWeather.com | SOLAR SURPRISE - prominence of magnificent proportions

Even during the deepest solar minimum in a century, the sun has the capacity for surprise. Larry Alvarez got one yesterday when he bent over the eyepiece of his solar telescope in Flower Mound, Texas. "I thought it would be just another day with a vanilla-wafer solar disk, but I was in for a blazing shock when I checked out the edge of the sun," he says. "There was a huge worm popping out of the apple--a prominence of magnificent proportions!" Here is what he saw:

"What a doozy," he says. "I watched the prominence for more than two hours and got some really nice shots." He's working on a video now--stay tuned for that.

Realtime images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory indicate that the prominence remains active. Readers with solar telescopes should take a look. It's no longer a surprise, but still a doozy.

images: from Mark Townley of Brierley Hill, West Midlands, UK; from Stephen Ames of Hodgenville, KY; from Fabio Mariuzza of Biauzzo-Codroipo, Italy; from Cai-Uso Wohler of Bispingen, Germany; from Emiel Veldhuis of Zwolle, the Netherlands; from Francisco A. Rodriguez of Cabreja Mountain Observatory, Vega de San Mateo, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands; from Gianfranco Meregalli of Milano, Italy;