The gas on and in the Sun is ionized, which means it is stripped of one or more electrons. That in turn means they are enthralled to the Sun's magnetic field, which can be a bit, ah, prickly. In this case, a giant prominence erupted from the surface of the Sun, a towering loop of gas almost as wide as the Sun itself! These pose no threat to us here, but do give us information about the Sun's writhing magnetism... and are also very, very pretty.
Credit: NASA/SDO
Original blog post
Credit: NASA/SDO
Original blog post
