A very long, whip-like solar filament extended about half a million miles in long arc above the Sun's surface (Aug. 6-8, 2012). The image and video show the filament as a darker strand that has been in view for several days. The video clip follows it for a little over 2 days. Towards the end of the clip part of it seems to break away but its basic length and shape seem to have remained mostly intact. Filaments are cooler clouds of gas that are tethered above the Sun's surface by unstable magnetic forces.
Search Tag(s): 304, filaments