NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory Satellite watched a solar prominence rise above the Sun's surface, twist around, elongate, and then break way from the Sun. Prominences are relatively cool clouds of solar material (called plasma) that are tethered above the Sun's surface by magnetic forces. Although tiny on the scale of the Sun, this prominence stretched out about ten times the diameter of Earth — see Earth inset for scale. These images were taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, which is invisible to human eyes.
