What are Prominences and Filaments?

Prominences and filaments are really the same thing, but they look bright or dark depending on what is in the picture's background.

The part on the face of the Sun is dark, those parts of the filament that show beyond the edge of the sun are bright. Filaments last for a few weeks or months. The gas in a filament will eventually move to different layer in the Sun and will no longer be visible in an image of the chromosphere. But at the same time, other gas may move into the chromosphere and create a new filament someplace else. The birth and death of filaments is a mystery and observing them can be a facinating hobby.