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Churning Filament

Nov. 28, 2017
This image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows a developing filament near the edge of the sun churned and twisted as the rotating sun brought it into clearer view over a day on Nov. 16-17, 2017.

A developing filament near the edge of the sun churned and twisted as the rotating sun brought it into clearer view over a day (Nov. 16-17, 2017). Filaments are cooler and often unstable clouds of particles floating above the sun's surface, which are tethered by magnetic forces. In extreme ultraviolet light, they appear darker than the sun's surface. The bright area to the right of the filament is an active region. The loop that appears behind the filament in the middle of the clip is made of charged particles tracing magnetic field lines.

Movies
PIA22120_Filament_churn_big.mp4
PIA22120_Filament_churn_sm.mp4

SDO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Its Atmosphere Imaging Assembly was built by the Lockheed Martin Solar Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL), Palo Alto, California.

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