On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3. Pictured here is a lighten blended version of the 304 and 171 angstrom wavelengths taken from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Dynamics_Observatory" class="extiw" title="en:Solar Dynamics Observatory">Solar Dynamics Observatory</a>. Cropped
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/24662369@N07">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a>
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<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flickr" class="mw-redirect" title="Flickr">Flickr</a>: <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/24662369@N07/7931831962">Magnificent CME Erupts on the Sun - August 31</a>