  Recent high-resolution and high-cadence EUV imaging has revealed a new
phenomenon, impacting prominence debris, where prominence material from failed
or partial eruptions can impact the lower atmosphere, releasing energy. We
report a clear example of energy release and EUV brightening due to infalling
prominence debris that occurred on 2011 September 7-8. The initial eruption of
material was associated with an X1.8-class flare from AR11283, occurring at
22:30 UT on 2011 September 7. Subsequently, a semi-continuous stream of this
material returned to the solar surface with a velocity v > 150 km/s, impacting
a region remote from the original active region between 00:20 - 00:40 UT on
2011 September 8. Using SDO/AIA, the differential emission measure of the
plasma was estimated throughout this brightening event. We found that the
radiated energy of the impacted plasma was L_rad ~10^27 ergs, while the thermal
energy peaked at ~10^28 ergs. From this we were able to determine the mass
content of the debris to be in the range 2x10^14 < m < 2x10^15 g. Given typical
promimence masses, the likely debris mass is towards the lower end of this
range. This clear example of a prominence debris event shows that significant
energy release takes place during these events, and that such impacts may be
used as a novel diagnostic tool for investigating prominence material
properties.
