What are prominences?

Prominences are big, glowing loops that appear on the Sun’s surface like giant jellyfish floating above it.

Imagine you're playing with a balloon. You blow it up and let it go, it floats up into the air, stretching out as it goes. Now imagine the Sun is blowing up balloons made of fire, and those balloons are floating up into space. These glowing loops are called prominences.

When you see a prominence, it's like seeing a firey rainbow hanging from the edge of the Sun, sometimes long and thin, other times wide and wobbly. They can stay there for hours or even days before slowly drifting back down.

The Sun is always moving and changing. Deep inside, hot gas rises up, like steam coming out of a kettle. This hot gas carries with it charged particles, which make the prominences glow. It’s like when you blow on a hot soup, the steam carries heat and makes things visible.

Sometimes, these glowing loops can even burst out into space in big explosions called solar flares!