Saturday, October 24, 2015

REALLY LONG FILAMENT Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA.



 


This week the Sun featured a very long filament that stretched at least half way across the Sun (Oct. 20-22, 2015). Filaments are elongated clouds of plasma that are tethered above the Sun by magnetic forces. They are often unstable and usually break apart in less than a week, though they can last longer than that. Filaments are darker than most of the Sun surface when viewed in extreme ultraviolet light, as it is here.



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