The Sun - Filament Channel Eruption

[Waspie_Dwarf]

NASA SDO - Filament Channel Eruption

An elongated channel of plasma became brighter after a solar filament lifted off from the Sun (June 24-25, 2013).

Filaments are cooler clouds of unstable, dense plasma suspended above the Sun's surface by magnetic forces.

After the liftoff, some plasma separated from the filament and fell down to near the solar surface. When the plasma blobs fell down to lower atmospheric heights, the high-speed downward-traveling plasma collided with plasma at lower atmospheric heights, causing the plasma to brighten and spread out.

The event was observed in extreme ultraviolet light.

Credit: NASA SDO

Source: NASA/SDO - Facebook