NASA SDO Image: long filament of solar material - HD Video

A long filament erupted on the sun on August 31, 2012, shown here in a movie captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) from noon EDT to 1:45 a.m. the next morning.

The filament lies in the lower left corner of the sun.

The movie shows light at 304 Angstroms and 171 Angstroms, both of which help scientists observe the sun's atmosphere, or corona.

A long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupts out into space.

The coronal mass ejection, or CME, travelled 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 auroras to appear on the night of Monday, September 3.

Picture: NASA/GSFC/SDO / Rex Features