Across the Sun
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Göran Strand
A long solar filament stretches across the relatively calm
surface of the Sun in this telescopic snap shot from April 27.
The negative or inverted
narrowband image was made in the light of
ionized hydrogen atoms.
Seen at the upper left, the magnificent curtain of magnetized plasma
towers above surface and actually reaches beyond the Sun's edge.
How long is the solar filament?
About as long as the distance from Earth to Moon, illustrated
by the scale insert at the left.
Tracking toward the right across
the solar disk a day later
the long filament erupted, lifting away from the Sun's surface.
Monitored by
Sun
staring satellites, a coronal mass ejection was
also blasted from the site but is expected to swing wide of
our fair planet.