In this photo there appears to be a strange cloud formation above the sun and it has a noticeably more reddish tint than the yellowish orange surface of the Sun. This extending loop is actually a solar prominence, which is an area of cooler plasma that allows for light to fall in the visible realm and therefore appears to have more saturated color. Solar prominences are attached in the photosphere, the area where light is emitted, rather than the sun's corona, which is where the plasma is significantly hotter and made up of ionized gasses that do not emit very much light. This particular solar prominence, captured by SOHO's Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT), is the largest that we have on record. It was taken during a coronal mass ejection, which is caused by bursts of solar wind that come from the corona and as plasma is heated to the point that electrons are travelling at the speed of light, a rearrangement of the magnetic field occurs and creates a shock that accelerates the particles resulting in a solar flare. When the solar flar occurs, gasses are released into space creating these loopy effects. When a solar prominence is viewed staright on with the sun's surface as the background, they appear as dark sun spots because the cooler plasma does not appear as bright.
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