Last week, NASA released a video recorded on July 19th 2012 which features an amazing display of what’s known as coronal rain which occurs in conjunction with a solar flare and coronal mass ejection. This process began when a massive solar flare burst from an area of magnetic activity. This was followed by a coronal mass ejection which is a violent burst of plasma and charged particles that is so powerful that it even affects the earth’s magnetosphere, causing phenomena such as the Northern and Southern lights.

The coronal rain which made this display particularly spectacular was caused when the ejected plasma cooled and condense along the lines of the Sun’s magnetic field. Magnetic fields are invisible, but the charged plasma is forced to move along the lines, showing up brightly in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 304 Angstroms, and outlining the fields as it slowly falls back to the solar surface. When you consider that this particular type of rain registers at around 50,000 Kelvin, you may reconsider complaining about the Irish rain next time you experience some ‘bad drying weather.’

Conor Hughes @chughesvm is a marketing executive at Vertical Markets which incorporates Life Science Recruitment and Capital Markets Executive Search

Video: courtesy of NASA via James Park’s youtube channel

Music: ‘Thunderbolt’ by Lars Leonhard, courtesy of artist.

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