Massive Filament Sighted

filament on Sun

Click on image for a larger version

17 July 2002

Click on the image to view a massive filament which SOHO and the Big Bear Observatory recently captured. A filament is a mass of gas suspended over the Sun's photosphere by magnetic fields, In this case, the filament appears as a large dark line threaded almost 3/4 of the way across the solar disk. When we see a filament on the limb of the Sun, against the dark sky, we call it a prominence.