Also known as CMEs, are huge bubbles of gas threaded with magnetic field lines that are ejected from the Sun. This takes about 7 hours. All though the Sun has been studied for hundreds of years, CMEs were just discovered in about the 1970s and were discovered by using a coronagraph.
A coronagraph produces an artificial eclipse of the Sun by placing an "occulating disk" over the image of the Sun.
CMEs disrupt the flow of the solar wind and produce disturbances that strike the earth with sometimes catastrophic results. They are often assosiated with solar flares and prominice eruptions. The frequency of CMEs varies with the Sunspot cycle. There is usually about 1 CME a week for a minumum and 2-3 a day at maximum.
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