Giant Solar Eruption Captured On NASA Video

By Valli Meenakshi Ramanathan | November 18 2012 4:07 AM

NASA/SDO/Steele Hill

Two prominent solar eruptions occurred one after the other, over a four-hour period (Nov. 16, 2012). The action was captured in the 304 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. It seems possible that a disruption to the Sun’s magnetic field might have triggered the second event since they were in relatively close proximity to each other. The expanding particle clouds heading into space do not appear to be Earth-directed.

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Giant eruptions of hot plasma from the sun in back-to-back solar storms Friday morning were captured on camera by a NASA spacecraft.

Called a solar prominence, the eruptions apparently expanded beyond the camera view of NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory that captured high-definition video of the solar eruption, Space.com reported.

The solar eruptions were not aimed at Earth and are unlikely to have any effect on the planet. But an earlier eruption last Monday supercharged the Earth's auroras visible near the poles.

"The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium. 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's Goddard Space Flight Center, which oversees the SDO mission, said in a statement.

When aimed at Earth, the solar flares and eruptions can threaten satellites and astronauts in orbit, and interfere with communication, navigation and power systems on the ground, Space.com notes.

SDO also captured an eruption of solar material at 900 miles per second from the sun in August.