Giant Sun Eruption Caught On Video By NASA
A giant sun eruption was captured on video by NASA, showing the sheer size and raw power of the star at the center of our solar system.
As Space.com noted, the giant sun eruption was seen on Friday as an explosion of super-hot plasma came in back-to-back solar storms. Known officially as a solar prominence, the giant sun eruption was seen at 1 am EST, followed by a second event four hours later. The eruptions were so large that they were caught by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
The video shows a giant loop of red plasma erupting from the sun, blasting away from the sun so far that it shoots out of frame.
“The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium,” officials with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which oversees the SDO mission, explained in a description. “The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun’s internal dynamo. An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma.”
NASA has also captured past solar explosions. At the end of August, a filament of solar material exploded out of the sun at 900 miles per second, with the Solar Dynamics Observatory again catching the sun eruption on camera.
The giant sun eruptions also created some amazing sights for people at high latitudes, creating bright and colorful Northern Lights displays.
While solar flares have the potential to disrupt satellites and electrical systems on Earth, the giant sun eruption captured by NASA was aimed away from Earth and shouldn’t cause any problems, Red Orbit reported.
