Freakishly Large Solar Eruption Video Captured By Sun Observing Spacecrafts @TheCosmosNews

#thecosmosnews The blast of hot gas stretched 2 million miles—and probably more. The Solar Orbiter spacecraft had a front-row view this week of the Sun giving out an unusually large belch, resulting in a one-of-a-kind image. Solar Orbiter observed the solar prominence, or filament, on February 15, according to a European Space Agency release. Solar prominences are clouds of solar gas held above the surface of the Sun’s magnetic field, and they often appear as gigantic looping structures that last for days or even weeks. These events can result in coronal mass ejections (CMEs), in which expelled gas races out through the solar system. If directed at Earth, CMEs can mess up our technologies—like newly launched satellites. Thankfully, this ejection was not directed toward Earth. Quite the opposite, actually. The view from Solar Orbiter, a joint mission of NASA and ESA, suggests the filament originated on the Sun’s far side from the perspective of the spacecraft. This particular solar prominence was a whopper, and it can be seen reaching out for at least 2.2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers), according to the ESA. And in fact, ESA says it’s “the largest ever event of its kind to be captured in a single field of view together with the solar disc,” an achievement that opens up “new possibilities to see how events like these connect to the solar disc.”