PHOTOGENIC EXPLOSION

During the early hours of May 9th, a magnetic filament snaking over the sun's northeastern limb rose up and flung itself into space. Click to view a movie of the eruption recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory:

While this eruption was underway, another magnetic filament connected to sunspot AR2339 also erupted. The two wild filaments combined to produce a bright CME: image. The expanding cloud does not appear to be heading for Earth. It was photogenic, but not geoeffective.

More explosions are in the offing. Behemoth sunspot AR2339 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for strong solar flares. NOAA forecasters estimate a 55% chance of M-flares and a 10% chance of X-flares on May 9th.