Back in September, "a magnetic filament of solar material" erupted on the sun, causing a huge 200,000 mile long atmospheric disturbance. For comparisons sake, the Earth has a circumference of just under 25,000 miles.
As NASA explains, the "filament ripped through the sun's atmosphere, the corona, leaving behind what looks like a canyon of fire. The glowing canyon traces the channel where magnetic fields held the filament aloft before the explosion... In reality, the sun is not made of fire, but of something called plasma: particles so hot that their electrons have boiled off, creating a charged gas that is interwoven with magnetic fields."
The solar event was captured by various different satellites, and the team at NASA have painstakingly combined all this imagery together to create a spectacular video recreation of the 'canyon'. Embedded below, the video is a remarkable look at the energy and dynamics of our nearest star:
Image Credit: NASA/SDO
