Watch the sun unleash 600,000-mile-long eruption in fiery outburst (video)

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Watch the sun unleash 600,000-mile-long eruption in fiery outburst (video)

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.

Credit: NASA / SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, helioviewer.org

A massive solar filament erupted in dramatic fashion last night (May 12-13) around 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT), hurling a surge of material across the sun’s northern hemisphere.

Stretching nearly 600,000 miles (1 million kilometers) — more than twice the distance between Earth and

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

— the event was as vast as it was striking! Data suggests Earth is not in the eruption’s path.

“Not sure what to call this eruption, maybe the “bird-wing” or “angel-wing” event? Either way, it is truly something to witness!”, aurora chaser

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

wrote in a

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

“Look at how large the blast is off

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

‘s northern hemisphere. I could watch this animation loop for hours!”

The filament, a long, dark ribbon of solar plasma suspended by magnetic fields, had been hanging above the sun’s surface before destabilizing.

“WOW! There is an absolutely enormous filament erupting right now! It dwarfs all the filament eruptions we have seen recently,” aurora chaser

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

wrote

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

on X.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

The solar filament erupted from the upper right section of the sun. It is visible as a long dark ribbon. | Credit: NASA / SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams, helioviewer.org

These filament structures are cooler and denser than their surroundings, making them appear as dark threads against the bright solar disk. When a filament erupts, it can trigger a

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

(CME), hurling a vast plume of plasma and magnetic field into space. And this particular filament did just that.

“What a spectacular CME from the huge filament eruption earlier today! Unfortunately, it is directed north and will miss us. A direct hit from a CME like this can be high-end G4 storm material, maybe even G5,” Atanackov wrote in a

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

While solar storms can sometimes spark dazzling auroras and even disrupt satellite communications or power grids when directed at

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, preliminary models suggest this CME will likely miss our planet. Still, scientists are watching closely.

You can keep up to date with the latest

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

forecasts, alerts and geomagnetic storm warnings with our aurora forecast live blog.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Watch #sun #unleash #600000milelong #eruption #fiery #outburst #video

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up