SDO sees a dark filament circle

A dark, almost circular filament broke away from the sun in a gauzy, feathery swirl, on Nov. 15, 2015, in this video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. This filament eruption was followed by a second filament breaking away on Nov. 16.

Filaments are dark strands of plasma tethered above the sun's surface by magnetic forces that, over time, often become disrupted and break away from the sun. Filaments appear darker than the surrounding material because of their comparatively cool temperature.

This video was taken in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths of 304 angstroms and colorized in red.