Science & Technology

Enormous pink 'flames' recorded on sun during total solar eclipse.

Brandon Specktor
Live Science
Thu, 18 Apr 2024 15:20 UTC

pink solar prominences eclipse april 2024

Fiery pink towers could be seen erupting from the sun during the total solar eclipse on April 8. What are they?

In this surprisingly colorful image, NASA photographer Keegan Barber captured the view of totality — the moment when the moon fully covered the sun's bright face, revealing its elusive outer atmosphere — as seen over Texas. Behind the black disk of the moon, the two outermost layers of the sun's atmosphere stab into the darkness: the white corona and the reddish-pink chromosphere. Both layers are normally invisible to the human eye.

Many stunning photos of the eclipse have already been shared, but a field of pink structures popping out of the sun like cherry blossoms sets this image apart. Despite what some excited eclipse viewers have claimed, those are not solar flares. But they are an equally impressive phenomenon, known as solar prominences — large, often looping towers of plasma that leap out of the sun's surface and stand anchored there for weeks or months at a time, according to NASA. (Flares, on the other hand, fly off into space within seconds.)

The fact that we can see these prominences from nearly 100 million miles (160 million km) away speaks to their incredible size. Many prominences stand taller than our planet's 7,900-mile (12,700 km) diameter; some truly gargantuan specimens stand taller than eight Earths stacked atop each other. Their pinkish hue in this photo comes from the sun's hydrogen, which emits a reddish light at high temperatures.

Prominences showing their faces in the afternoon are just one of the many beautiful and elusive phenomena visible during a total solar eclipse. If you didn't get to experience this one in person, check out our full report of the many strange things we observed during totality.

Brandon Specktor

Brandon Specktor is the space/physics editor at Live Science. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, CBS.com, the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and other outlets. He holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona, with minors in journalism and media arts. He enjoys writing most about space, geoscience and the mysteries of the universe.

Reader Comments

boli · 2024-04-18T16:17:39Z

"Both layers are normally invisible to the human eye."

Liar. They are visible, but overwhelmed by brightness of the rest of the disk. You're not that stupid.

gdpetti · 2024-04-18T21:59:02Z

boli Which is why they have filters, but isn't pink a little new? A sign of the times?

boli · 2024-04-18T22:21:32Z

gdpetti Color perception is in the eye of the beholder, I think someone said something like that.

I didn't see "pink", but that isn't very meaningful. I argue with my wife all the time about whether some thing is blue or green... not sure I've ever won one of those arguments, though.

Whatever is going on with the sun, I can certainly understand that there could be - and probably is - something that manifests in new forms and/or new colors.

LindaMay · 2024-04-19T00:14:41Z

boli In my neck of the Blue Marble Hospital visits for the eyes have increased significantly, and today another SOLAR GLASSES supplier found out they were 'not the real deal either.

The Natives stayed indoors, I stayed under my blankets for 3 days.

jfm5959 ·

gdpetti

· 2024-04-26T19:42:17Z

tekdude · 2024-04-18T23:49:30Z

What are they??? - They're flame tips coming off of a ball of fire. Okay?...

Buffalo_Ken · 2024-04-19T00:32:29Z

They seem more magenta than pink to me.

I mean here is pink per one image - the colors of the images presented were not all the same....:

[Link]
Here is magenta - same situation:

[Link]
~

Here is the "definition of the pink colo r "

[Link]
Specifically, noun #3 definition #1:

any of a group of colors bluish red to red in hue, of medium to high lightness, and of low to moderate saturation

Here is the magenta color definition:

[Link]
Specifically, noun #1 definition #2

a deep purplish red

Seems there is quite of bit of subjectiveness to the semantics around "colors" definitions - and if one's eyes perspective of color are variable amongst a cohort randomly selected, well then - speaks to the challenge of good communication.

~

But, for me - Regardless of semantics, I'm glad I was in the ribbon of it, and I was aware of times when protection was needed, but being how cloudy it was most of the time - no protection was necessary. Still - I experience it and I'll never forget it - I feel like it made me into somebody different than who I was prior to being in the ribbon.

So, sometimes in life - an effort needs to be made to learn about celestial forces beyond our everyday senses.

I shared images of the experience and I think I've already posted the link for that elswhere.

Purple is the combination of red and blue is what they taught us in elementary school - but as an adult we learn more about nuance - do we not?

I appreciate this article even if it is sort of "fluffy" - I celebrated being in the ribbon with those nearby - it was a moment we shared together.

I'll never forget that - it was special.

BK

Joan · 2024-04-19T20:25:08Z

Buffalo_Ken Thank you for your post recently regarding sharing your images with your family during the eclipse, I thought the images were most interesting.

I thought there was a tinge of pink in those images, I thought they had a tinge of pink, but maybe it was something and nothing with my aging eyes.

It would be wonderful if you could post them again, I thought it was spectacular.

Thank you...Joan

Buffalo_Ken · 2024-04-20T15:02:31Z

Joan - thank you for what you express above. I saw pink as well in the images - I think it may have been informed by the clouds at the time....

Here is the link: [Link] - "The Eclipse Images"

Ken

Buffalo_Ken · 2024-04-19T01:08:58Z

If you scroll down on this article there is an image in it - I think it is magenta - but others might sense pink.

The new (hard) science of death

'There's something happening in the brain that makes no sense' Patient One was 24 years old and pregnant with her third child when she was taken off life support. It was 2014. A couple of years...

It is kind of the same difference - ain't it?

Buffalo_Ken · 2024-04-19T01:13:06Z

Buffalo_Ken - oh, I take that back - definitely not pink.

Pink has a lighter hue to it - it forms and unusual color.

Here - I'll provide a better example of pink.

[Link] - you can get it at WalMart

I wonder where they make Pepto these days.

[Link] - seriously I wonder.

Still - can't deny bismuth is a fine element - the last stable one on the table.

#83

[Link]
You never know what you gonna learn on sott.net

Pepto-Bismol contains a pretty high concentration of bismuth — so much that if you have a few hours on your hands, you can actually extract the metal from Pepto-Bismol pills. And if you have even more time on your hands — like a couple of days — you can use it to grow metal bismuth crystals in your home. It's a fiddly process and requires some basic chemistry lab equipment, but it just goes to show: Even if something looks like it was grown by aliens in a futuristic moon cave, it might just come from somebody's kitchen lab.

Buffalo_Ken · 2024-04-19T01:23:40Z

Buffalo_Ken - by the way Proctor and Gamble has product made all over the place - they make diapers as well I think - they ought of just stuck with Pepto Bismol instead of making a million versions of Pampers - which really tis a waste of forest products you want my humble opinion - better used in cellulose acetate that could be recyclable - whether the color is pink or blue or black or white or transparent for that matter - what difference does it make when so much is being wasted and if you put your money under the mattress then that just means you must be afraid of the future I reckon?

~

I only type this cause I remember one time the fine Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at NC State after a visit from Proctor and Gamble sort of asked the same diaper question - that professor more than likely would get fired nowadays for having the audacity to challenge the group-think of the moment - but I think he was correct and I appreciated him as a professor - even though it was a hard A in his class.

Martin Harris ·

Fluff article.

· 2024-04-19T01:38:30Z

“

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Today as never before we need to comprehend the course, logic, and path of the process of history. Every day we need to make decisions that will affect future generations. It has become obvious that no single nation, confession, social class or even civilization can solve these problems on its own. We increasingly have to listen to one another: Europe and Asia, Christians and Muslims, White and Black peoples, citizens of modern democratic states and places where traditional society survives. The key is to understand one another correctly, avoid hasty conclusions, and acquire the true spirit of tolerance and respect toward those with different value systems, habits, and norms.

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Gnostic

"[...]sending it at the system's maximum rate of 267 megabits per second. This correspondence — which included footage of an orange tabby cat...

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Enormous pink 'flames' recorded on sun during total solar eclipse.

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