A long filament erupted on the sun on August 31, 2012, shown here in this still captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
A long filament erupted on the sun on August 31, 2012, shown here in this still captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The eruption lasted from noon EDT to 1:45 a.m. the next morning. This still shows light at 304 Angstroms which help scientists observe the sun’s atmosphere, or corona. Pictured next to the filament is a superimposed Earth, shown to scale. Credit: NASA/SDO/AIALink to associated news item