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SDO Sees Very Long Filament

long dark line, known as a filament, stretching at least halfway across the sun's face, Oct. 21, 2015
This past week the sun featured a long dark line, known as a filament, which stretched at least halfway across its face as seen in the top half of this image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, captured on Oct. 21, 2015.

This past week the sun featured a long dark line, known as a filament, which stretched at least halfway across its face as seen in the top half of this image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, captured on Oct. 21, 2015. This filament is about the length of 50 Earths side-by-side. Filaments are elongated clouds of solar material that are tethered above the sun by magnetic forces. They are often unstable and usually break apart in less than a week, though they can last longer than that. Filaments are darker than most of the sun’s surface when viewed in extreme ultraviolet light. This filament was imaged in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 193 angstroms, which is normally invisible to our eyes but is colorized here in bronze.

Image credit: NASA/SDO