Page 33 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

As the flares run out of energy and cool down, they produce loop prominences as described below.
Flares add considerably to the amount of material being ejected into the corona, produce much of the material flowing outward as the solar wind, and can cause great magnetic shock waves through the Solar System. Particle storms produced by flares bathe the Earth in protons.
Prominences
Largely horizontal arcs of ionized gas are called prominences. Both prominences and the chromosphere are transparent
in white light and, except during total eclipses, can only be seen using telescopes with coloured filters.
Some prominences only last a short time; others are much longer lasting and are connected to large-scale patterns of magnetism within the Sun.
The long-lived prominences are sheetlike in form—the equivalent of solar clouds in the solar atmosphere.
Much more spectacular are prominences produced by solar flares, short-term upward jets of plasma that are extremely violent eruptions of matter from the photosphere. Toward the end of their “lives” they form loop prominences.
Prominences also emit large amounts of ultraviolet rays, gamma rays, and X-rays.
Prominences and spicules (see page 35) are mutually exclusive. Parts of the chromosphere have prominences and no spicules; others have spicules and no prominences.
chromosphere The shell of gases that makes up part of the atmosphere of a star and lies between the photosphere and the corona.
eclipse The time when light is cut off by a body coming between the observer and the source of the illumination (for example, eclipse of the Sun), or when the body the observer is on comes between the source of illumination and another body (for example, eclipse of the Moon).
electrons Negatively charged particles that are parts of atoms.
ionized Matter that has been converted into small charged particles called ions.
magnetic field The region of influence of a magnetic body.
magnetism An invisible force that has the property of attracting iron and similar metals.
plasma A collection of charged particles that behaves something like a gas. It can conduct an electric charge and be affected by magnetic fields.
prominence A cloud of burning ionized gas that rises through the Sun’s chromosphere into the corona. It can take the form of a sheet or a loop.
protons Positively charged particles from the core of an atom.
radio waves A form of electromagnetic radiation, like light and heat. Radio waves have a longer wavelength than light waves.
solar flare Any sudden explosion from the surface
of the Sun that sends ultraviolet radiation into the chromosphere. It also sends out some particles that reach Earth and disrupt radio communications.
solar wind The flow of tiny charged particles (called plasma) outward from the Sun.
total eclipse When one body (such as the Moon or Earth) completely obscures the light source from another body (such as the Earth or Moon).
ultraviolet A form of radiation that is just beyond the violet end of the visible spectrum and so is called “ultra” (more than) violet. At the other end of the visible spectrum is “infra” (less than) red.
x-ray An invisible form of radiation that has extremely short wavelengths just beyond the ultraviolet.
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