An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A huge solar prominence which has previously been quiescent but suddenly starts to lift up from the → photosphere with velocities of several hundred km/s and escapes into the → interplanetary space. Eruptive prominences with the highest velocities have been observed at 1300 km/s, reaching heights of 1 million km above the photosphere. Such prominences are often observed at the solar limb, in association with → coronal mass ejections. On the Sun’s disk, the equivalent phenomenon is an eruptive filament.

See also: → eruptive; → prominence