The Collaborative International Dictionary
Protuberance \Pro*tu"ber*ance\, n. [Cf. F. protub['e]rance. See Protuberant.] That which is protuberant swelled or pushed beyond the surrounding or adjacent surface; a swelling or tumor on the body; a prominence; a bunch or knob; an elevation.
Solar protuberances (Astron.), certain rose-colored masses on the limb of the sun which are seen to extend beyond the edge of the moon at the time of a solar eclipse. They may be discovered with the spectroscope on any clear day. Called also solar prominences. See Illust. in Append.
Syn: Projection, Protuberance. protuberance differs from projection, being applied to parts that rise from the surface with a gradual ascent or small angle; whereas a projection may be at a right angle with the surface.
Usage examples of "solar prominences".
These filamentary structures are seen clearly in laboratory plasma discharges, solar prominences, and the shimmering draperies of the aurora, kinking and writhing unpredictably under their own internally generated fields, as fusion researchers trying to contain plasmas have learned to their consternation.
It guided the magnetic fields by which solar prominences could be manipulated.
I fancied It must be spirals of vapour that had caught the light and made this crest of fiery tongues against the sky, but indeed it was the solar prominences I Saw, a crown of fire about the sun that is forever hidden from earthly eyes by our atmospheric veil.
For this particular drawing I had borrowed one of those beautiful pictures of the solar prominences taken at the solar laboratory in Colorado.
It was formed of small solar prominences bound together in the form of a horse.
He was forced to content himself with imagining what the solar prominences and spots might be like.
He mounted carefully, feeling neither heat nor pain but watching fascinated as tiny solar prominences erupted from M'nemaxa's epidermis only inches from his puny human skin.