A Small Flare and Eruption from a Giant Filament

This image of the sun is produced by ionized hydrogen. Looking at the sun in this wavelength of light makes it easier to see filaments. They appear as long, dark structures in H alpha. They are darker because they are relatively cooler (60,000 - 80,000 degrees) than the surrounding material. The large filament that produced a small eruption is next to sunspot group, AR11112.

Around 16:00UT (12:00 EDT), the giant filament next to sunspot group, AR11112, produced a small eruption along with a small C2.5 solar flare.

The peak toward the end of this plot that is circled is the C2.5 solar flare.

Some type of instability in the magnetic field over the filament caused part of the hot solar plasma making up the filament to be released sending some of the material into space.

This video show the eruption with data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The video shows 4 wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light, 304, 171, 193 and 211 Angstroms.

A small narrow feature, possibly a CME (coronal mass ejection), can be seen moving outward from the lower right in the LASCO C2 coronagraph. But it does not appear to be earth directed.