Astronomy Picture of the Day

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
professional astronomer.

2018 September 16
[2]
A Solar Filament Erupts
Image Credit: NASA [3] 's GSFC [4] , SDO AIA Team [5]

Explanation: What's happened to our Sun? Nothing very unusual -- it just threw a filament [6] . Toward the middle of 2012, a long standing solar filament [7] suddenly erupted into space producing an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection
(CME). The filament [8] had been held up for days by the Sun's ever changing magnetic field [9] and the timing of the eruption was unexpected. Watched closely [10] by the Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, the resulting explosion [11] shot [12] electrons and ions into the Solar System, some of which arrived at Earth three days later and impacted Earth's magnetosphere
[13] , causing visible aurorae [14] . Loops of plasma surrounding an active region [15] can be seen above the erupting filament in the featured [16] ultraviolet [17] image. Although the Sun is now in a relatively inactive [18]
state of its 11-year cycle [19] , unexpected holes [20] have opened in the Sun's corona [21] allowing an excess of charged particles [22] to stream into space. As before, these charged particles are creating auroras [23] .

Tomorrow's picture: black hole necklace

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [35] (MTU [36] ) & Jerry Bonnell [37]
(UMCP [38] )
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [39] .
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [40]
A service of: ASD [41] at NASA [42] / GSFC [43]
& Michigan Tech. U. [44]
----------
Site notes:
[1] archivepix.html
[2] image/1809/filament_sdo_1080.jpg
[3] https://www.nasa.gov/
[4] https://www.nasa.gov/goddard
[5] https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/
[6] ap101215.html
[7] http://solar.physics.montana.edu/ypop/Program/hfilament.html
[8]
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/09/10/ a-huge-solar-filament-erupts-into-space/
[9] http://solar-center.stanford.edu/magnetism/magneticfields.html
[10] http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/sets/72157631408160534/
[11] http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/7931868316/in/set-72157631408160534
[12] http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/7938936660/in/set-72157631408160534
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetosphere
[14] ap120321.html
[15] ap080924.html
[16] http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/7931831962/in/set-72157631408160534/
[17] https://science.nasa.gov/ems/10_ultravioletwaves
[18] https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/news-articles/solar-minimum-is-coming
[19] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle
[20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronal_hole
[21] ap180430.html
[22] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charged_particle
[23] http://spaceweathergallery.com/aurora_gallery.html
[24] ap180915.html
[25] archivepix.html
[26] lib/apsubmit2015.html
[27] lib/aptree.html
[28] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
[29] calendar/allyears.html
[30] /apod.rss
[31] lib/edlinks.html
[32] lib/about_apod.html
[33] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180916
[34] ap180917.html
[35] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
[36] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
[37] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
[38] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
[39] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
[40] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
[41] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
[42] https://www.nasa.gov/
[43] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
[44] http://www.mtu.edu/

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