A European spacecraft has captured rare images of three successive prominences rising from the sun
By Meghan Bartels edited by Clara Moskowitz
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The rhythm of the sun rising and setting in the sky can make us forget that our star is unpredictable: a seething, churning mass of light. magnetically knotted plasma which governs the entire solar system. But a new video from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Proba-3 mission shows a series of fountains explosions in the sun offers a powerful reminder of the active nature of our local star.
The Proba-3 mission, launched in December 2024, consists of two spacecraft. Together, the two satellites create artificial total solar eclipses that give scientists a glimpse of the corona, the outermost layer of the solar atmosphere. In September 2025, the mission captured particularly extraordinary images of three separate explosions in just five hours.
“Seeing so many prominent flares in such a short period of time is rare, so I am very happy that we managed to capture them so clearly during our observation window,” Andrei Zhukov, a senior research scientist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium and principal investigator of one of the Proba-3 instruments, said in a study. ESA Statement.
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Solar prominences occur when solar plasma, flowing along magnetic field lines created by the sun, forms a loop in space along the edge of the solar disk. When a prominence becomes destabilized, it can erupt into space.
A telescope tool called a coronagraph has long allowed scientists to capture the faint light of the corona by blocking most of the sunlight – an artificial version of the Moon blocking the solar disk for a total solar eclipse. Proba-3 takes this technology even further by separating the equipment intended for this type of observation on two spacecraft which must fly in perfect harmony to collect useful observations.
The smaller of the two Proba-3 spacecraft, called Occulter, serves to block the visible disk of the sun. The larger spacecraft then carries the observation system itself. With approximately 150 meters between the two spacecraft, the amount of stray light that can sneak around the Occulter’s disk is reduced, allowing for more precise observations.
This precision allows the trio of prominences to shine in the newly released images. Although the images are exceptional, the prominences themselves are not surprising: even as the sun’s activity decreases, it remains relatively high, as evidenced by the stunning images. auroral displays in November And again these last few days.
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