Polar Vortex on the Sun
A long, looping filament of plasma snapped over the sun's north pole, creating a 'polar vortex' that scientists can't explain. On Feb. 2, a massive tentacle of plasma snapped apart in the sun's atmosphere before tumbling down, circling the star's north pole at thousands of miles a minute, and then disappearing — leaving scientists baffled.
Essentially, a long filament of plasma — the electrically charged gas that all stars are made of — shot out of the sun's surface, creating a huge looping feature called a prominence. These structures are common and can loop into space for hundreds of thousands of miles as solar plasma spirals along tangled magnetic field lines. What is strange, however, is for a prominence to suddenly break apart and then remain airborne for hours, swirling around the sun's poles.
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