A screenshot of an animation of images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, shows an eruption of plasma exploding into space from the Sun. (Source: ESA/NASA/SOHO) An elongated filament of plasma suspended above the Sun by titanic magnetic forces suddenly broke free on April 28 and 29, 2015. To watch the ensuing explosive spray of incandescent material out into space — a phenomenon known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME — please click on the image above. The animation consists of images from the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. SOHO's Lasco C2 camera is able to acquire imagery of wispy CMEs like this only by blocking out the blindingly bright Sun using an "occulting disk."
Click for large image. (Credit: NASA) You can think of this technique as a kind of artificial eclipse. In the screenshot above, a full-disk image of the Sun acquired by another spacecraft, ...
