Solar Filament Eruption on the East Limb

Early this morning (Feb 24th) a large filament (solar plasma from lower in the Sun's atmosphere) erupted into space. It was supported higher up in the Sun's atmosphere by magnetic fields. When they become unstable filaments can erupt into space as this one did. 

Here is a video of the eruption as seen by the 304 Angstrom wavelength channel from the SDO spacecraft. 304 Angstrom light comes from superheated (ionized)

 helium that is around 60,000-80,000 Kelvin. 

This is cool compared to the Sun's corona and so this material would appear darker in other SDO wavelengths like 171, 193 or 211 Angstroms.

 This event was also observed by the STEREO EUV imager EUVI. Once it left the Sun it became a coronal mass ejection (CME) as was visible with the SOHO and STEREO coronagraphs. 

The CME was not Earth directed. (credit: SDO and helioviewer.org)

NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory