With all excitement about the Curiosity rover landing on Mars, everyone seemed to forget about the rest of the solar system. But the sun isn’t letting any old Red Planet stand in its way: the buoyant star of fire experienced a 500,000-mile filament (that’s huge, 2x the distance from the Earth to the Moon), creating a spectacular show. Filaments occur in large, dense regions, where cool gas is held in between magnetic fields (the air held in is cooler, causing it to appear darker). If planets could talk we think the sun would say that it’s “not jealous, just didn’t want anyone to forget about him up there.” Don’t worry, sun. We feel you. Ohh do we feel you.
(via Dvice)