| | | You're on the right path. I'll clarify.
The picture is from an "Fe XII" filter, which stands for Iron-12. It only views emission by iron-12 at 1,000,000 Kelvin and iron-24 at 20,000,000 Kelvin. These extremely high temperatures are only observed in the corona, considered the "atmosphere" of the sun. In this region, ionized molecules are trapped within the powerful magnetic fields (called coronal loops) and heated to millions of degrees by constant bombardment of radiation.
Before eruptions, there is a build up of energy causing the region to grow brighter and brighter. Upon eruption, the coronal loop is broken and high-energy plasma flows with the open magnetic fields into space. The broken loop is called a coronal hole, and coronal holes look black, since iron-12 and iron-24 is escaping into space instead of being heated to millions of degrees when trapped within the corona.
The coronal holes can stay open over a wide range of days to weeks. It's tough to predict something powered by fusion :) |
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