Astrophotographer Mark Johnston has captured two mesmerizing views of large photo voltaic prominences — towering clouds of glowing plasma suspended above the solar by magnetic fields.
The primary video, captured on Could 22, 2026, reveals a exceptional prominence releasing streams of fabric that seem to fall again towards the solar as coronal rain. The second, filmed on Could 31, 2026, reveals a ‘Godzilla’-like prominence looming above the photo voltaic floor.
Johnston defined that the flowing plasma could seem wind-swept, however the movement is basically managed by the solar’s magnetic area.
“The motion you see could seem like wind results, but it surely’s principally attributable to magnetic fields and, to a lesser extent, gravity. The hydrogen on the limb is ionized, so magnetic fields pull it along invisible field lines,” Johnston told Space.com in an email.
Johnston captured the footage from his backyard in Scottsdale, Arizona, using a 160mm refractor equipped with a specialized hydrogen-alpha solar filter.
“I try to image the Sun every clear morning, and I’m always looking for interesting features,” Johnston told Space.com in an email.
While the prominence resembles a fiery eruption, Johnston notes that looks can be deceiving.
“It’s not flame. There’s no fire on the Sun. Just as your stove can glow red-hot and not be on fire, the hydrogen on the Sun is so hot it glows too.”
Solar prominences are immense structures of superheated plasma that extend outward from the sun’s surface while remaining tethered by magnetic fields. When viewed against the dark backdrop of space, they can appear as glowing arches, curtains or towering clouds along the sun’s edge. The same structures are known as filaments when seen against the bright face of the sun, where they appear as dark ribbons because they are cooler and denser than the surrounding material.
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