--- title: Watch a Round Fiery Gas Cloud Explode Off the Sun description: A round solar filament put on a show canonical: https://time.com/4269327/round-sun-gas-cloud/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-23T17:10:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:09:10.974Z article:section: Science og:title: Watch a Round Fiery Gas Cloud Explode Off the Sun og:description: A circular solar filament put on a show og:url: https://time.com/4269327/round-sun-gas-cloud/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2cbee54196ae9ab3/69888c39f887dc57fbe952a6/circle_burst304.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: circle_burst304 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch a Round Fiery Gas Cloud Explode Off the Sun twitter:description: A circular solar filament put on a show twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2cbee54196ae9ab3/69888c39f887dc57fbe952a6/circle_burst304.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch a Round Fiery Gas Cloud Explode Off the Sun by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Mar 23, 2016 5:10 PM CUT  NASA/SDO by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Mar 23, 2016 5:10 PM CUT A round solar filament curved off of the sun on March 13, creating a stunning spectacle that was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Solar filaments are gas clouds that hover over the sun, held in place by magnetic fields in the atmosphere, EarthSky reports. In this incident, images were taken every 12 seconds over a three-hour period in which the filament put on its show earlier this month. Filaments are usually unstable, and often last only a few days. \[[EarthSky](http://earthsky.org/space/dramatic-circular-outburst-from-sun "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4269327/round-sun-gas-cloud/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4269327/round-sun-gas-cloud/"},"headline":"Watch a Round Fiery Gas Cloud Explode Off the Sun","datePublished":"2016-03-23T17:10:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:09:10.974Z","description":"A circular solar filament put on a show","url":"https://time.com/4269327/round-sun-gas-cloud/","keywords":["Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2cbee54196ae9ab3/69888c39f887dc57fbe952a6/circle_burst304.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2cbee54196ae9ab3/69888c39f887dc57fbe952a6/circle_burst304.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"circle_burst304","caption":"","creditText":"NASA/SDO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4269327/round-sun-gas-cloud/","name":"Watch a Round Fiery Gas Cloud Explode Off the Sun"}}]}] ```