Clocking in at an impressive 80,000 miles high, this isn’t any ordinary tree.
It’s actually made from plasma that has been pulled away from the Sun by its magnetic field.
Anchored to its surface, they stretch out into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona.
Eventually, this tree will rain moon-sized gobs of plasma down on the Sun.
It’s an event that McCarthy calls an apocalyptic thunderstorm.
This phenomenon is known ascoronal rain.
It happens when the hot plasma cools and condenses in the magnetic field.
When this happens, the cooled plasma rains back down into the photosphere.
As always, McCarthy gives us a fascinating astronomy lesson wrapped in a stunning visual.
In fact, arecent postof his on Twitter is a fantastic reminder about safety when working with telescopes.
If you are interested in supporting McCarthy’s astrophotography, he has aPatreonwith special perks for supporters.
Andrew McCarthy photographed a plasma tree the size of Jupiter shooting up from the Sun’s surface.
This is why you dont point a telescope at the sun.
