NASA SDO - Dragon Tail Filament Eruption, January 31, 2013

A look at the filament break-up on January 31, 2013. The entire event lasted for approx. 4 hours. This video shows a variety of views of the break-up of this structure. Filaments are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, called the corona. A filament forms over timescales of about a day, and stable filaments may persist in the corona for several months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space. Some