solar prominence (redirected from Solar filament)

solar prominence

Arched stream of hot gas projecting from the Sun's surface into the chromosphere or corona. Prominences can be hundreds of thousands of miles long and can be seen with the unaided eye during a total eclipse. They appear to lie along and are supported by loops in the Sun's magnetic field, where they may remain for days to months.

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solar prominence [′sō·lər ′präm·ə·nəns]

(astronomy)

Sheets of luminous gas emanating from the sun's surface; they appear dark against the sun's disk but bright against the dark sky, and occur only in regions of horizontal magnetic fields.