Explanation:
What's happened to our Sun?
Nothing very unusual -- it just
threw a filament.
At the end of last month, a long standing
solar filament
suddenly erupted into space producing an energetic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).
The filament had been held up for days by the Sun's ever changing
magnetic field
and the timing of the eruption was unexpected.
Watched closely by the Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, the resulting
explosionshot electrons and ions into the Solar System, some of which arrived at Earth three days later and impacted Earth's
magnetosphere, causing visible
aurorae.
Loops of plasma surrounding an
active region can be seen above the erupting filament in
the ultraviolet image.
If you missed this
auroral display
please do not
despair -- over the next two years our Sun will be experiencing a
solar maximum of activity which
promises to produce
more CMEs that induce more Earthly auroras.
