this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula
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We can see solar flares!!!!!!!! How cool is that???
The pillars and loops are prominences that result from the ionized solar material following magnetic field lines on the surface. Flares are explosions that occur when those magnetic field lines break and reconnect. So, flares are often seen where prominences are occurring, but they're not the same phenomenon.
Yeah it was crazy, we could all see a red dot with our bare eyes during totality and weren't sure what it was. Think it might've been a particularly bright solar flare!
Like this photo isn't even specially edited. I literally just brought down the highlights to get better definition on the beads because without that it looked more like the diamond ring. No artificial color enhancement or anything.
The most prominent red dot visible during totality was the big loop prominence that you have at 5 o'clock in your image here. On Monday night, I compared my pre-totality images with those from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and was able to use the sunspot clusters to match their orientation. The brightest of the red dots was right where the loop is.
That's awesome! Thanks for the clarification between flares and prominences as well!