Home | Gallery of astronomical pictures | SUN H-alpha (PST-mod-80 mm) | mosaic filament & AR12280

 

Giant filament which appeared around 9 Fev 2015, that seemed sprouting from AR 12280 on the west. Mosaic of six images. 

 

A dark, snaking line across the lower half of the sun in this Feb. 10, 2015, image from Solar Observatory William & Caroline Herschel (MU) shows a filament of solar material hovering above the sun's surface.

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The image shows colder material as dark and hotter material as light, so the line is, in fact, an enormous swatch of colder material hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona. Stretched out, these solar filament would be more than 533,000 miles long (858,000 Kms). That is longer than 67 Earths lined up in a row. Filaments can float sedately for days before disappearing. Sometimes they also erupt out into space, releasing solar material in a shower that either rains back down or escapes out into space, becoming a moving cloud known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME.  (Credit: NASA/SDO)

 

(From Daily Solar Activity Reports of Big Bear Solar Observatory) 

Solar activity is moderate.

NOAA 12280, S07 W50 (X= 741,Y= -46). Beta-gamma-delta region. C-class flare expected, M-class flare possible.

 

 

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