Coronal_Mass_Ejection_Erupts_on_the_Sun_2012

Coronal_Mass_Ejection_Erupts_on_the_Sun_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. Pictured here is a lighten blended version of the 304 and 171 angstrom wavelengths taken from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Cropped. Photo by
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.