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Magnificent CME Erupts on our Sun, August 31, 2012

On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3.

 

Picuted here is a lighten blended version of the 304 and 171 angstrom wavelengths. Cropped by NASA

 

Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

Edited from a copy at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magnificent_CME_Erupts_on...

PD photo. I touched up levels a bit.

 

For science nerds: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_mass_ejection

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Dynamics_Observatory

 

 

 

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Uploaded on January 25, 2023
Taken on January 25, 2023