Hi Michelle.

No, solar prominences are quite active, but I would not compare them to an explosion. Sometimes they are involved in something you would think of as an explosion, though.

Prominences are long ropes of relatively cool material (relatively cool in this case means about 15,000 F!) which hang in the Sun's super hot (million degree) corona. They are supported by the Sun's magnetic field and can stay there for weeks or even months. Sometimes, however, they do erupt off the Sun into the solar system. This can be a part of a coronal mass ejection (CME). So in that sense you might say an erupting prominence is part of an explosion. Sometimes after eruptions the prominences then reform again.

We are studying prominences to understand what is going on in the Sun's atmosphere, to better understand the Sun's magnetic field, and, in the case of erupting prominences to better understand the eruptions and CMEs.

Also, prominences are pretty neat looking!

Here are some pictures and more information about prominences:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap970127.html

http://solar.physics.mont...ogram/hfilament.html

http://www.spaceweather.c...ssary/filaments.html

Terry