Post by Sowelu on Oct 19, 2010 4:07:09 GMT -5
FILAMENT ERUPTION:
For days, astronomers have been monitoring a "mega-filament" of magnetism splayed across the sun's southern hemisphere. Measuring more than 500,000 km from end to end, it spans a distance greater than the separation of Earth and the Moon. Oct. 18th the massive structure erupted:
(Click picture: Takes a minute or so to load, typically)
Movie formats: 1.6 MB mpeg, 1 MB m4v. Credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory
Instabilities in the filament sparked a C2-class flare and hurled a portion of the filament's own magnetic backbone into space. The blast was not Earth-directed. Remarkably, the structure survived mostly intact and is still visible in backyard optics. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor developments.
Found here
Hiya!!! Yeah, it's exciting... which is really a mixture of "uh-oh" and "ooooh" and "wow!" and "cooool" *heehee*