U.S. #5605
2021 55¢ Sun Science – Plasma Blast
Issue Date: June 18, 2021
First Day City: Greenbelt, MD
Type of Stamp: Commemorative
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Flexographic, Foil Stamping
Format: Pane of 20
Self-Adhesive
Quantity Printed: 18,000,000
As you may know, our Sun is made up of extremely hot plasma. This plasma is constantly in motion based on the influence of electromagnetic fields. Sometimes, the plasma behaves unpredictably.
At the end of November 2020, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an amazing event on the surface of the Sun. It was known as a plasma eruption and lasted for about an hour. NASA posted a video online showing a sped-up version of the breathtaking event.
The November 2020 plasma eruption began as a solar flare – a powerful explosion of solar radiation caused by the tangling of magnetic fields around sunspots. Once the solar flare ended, the plasma eruption began. This eruption released a huge amount of radiation, gas, and other solar material – known as a coronal mass ejection.
NASA didn't disclose exact measurements of this particular solar flare and plasma eruption, but past data can give us a rough idea. Solar flares typically measure 62,000 to 310,000 miles across (8 to 40 Earths). In comparison, coronal mass ejections have been known to be as wide as 23 million miles across. It's hard to imagine how large and powerful the Sun is... until you see numbers like that!