A very long, whip-like solar filament extended about half a million miles in long arc above the Sun's surface (Aug. 6-8, 2012). The image and video show the filament as a darker strand that has been in view for several days. The video clip follows it for a little over 2 days. Towards the end of the clip part of it seems to break away but its basic length and shape seem to have remained mostly intact. Filaments are cooler clouds of gas that are tethered above the Sun's surface by unstable magnetic forces.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO/AIA
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captures a very long, whip-like solar filament extending over half a million miles in a long arc above the sun’s surface. Filaments are cooler clouds of solar material that are tethered above the sun’s surface by unstable magnetic forces. The image and video, which covers August 6-8, 2012 show the filament as a darker strand that has been in view for several days. Towards the end of the video part of the filament seems to break away, but its basic length and shape seem to have remained mostly intact. << Previous SDO