A telescope image with the disc of the sun removed (dark area) to show the solar prominences during a time of high solar activity. This image was obtained with an H-alpha filter, which reveals the chromosphere, a reddish layer of the Sun's atmosphere. A prominence is a cloud of plasma anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extending outwards into the Sun's corona. They are shaped by the curved magnetic field lines around the Sun's surface. Date: August 2011