NASA captures jaw-dropping images of the plasma explosion on the sun

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recently captured images of a plasma eruption on the Sun’s surface, and it’s a wild sight to behold. NASA’s SDO, a spacecraft orbiting the Earth, saw the eruption in late November. Now, in a new video, NASA shows, in visible and invisible wavelengths of light, exactly what the giant solar event looked like.

NASA recently posted the above video of the solar flare on its YouTube channel. The event on the Sun’s surface, which lasts only a few seconds in the video but probably about an hour in real time, begins with a solar flare; that is, an intense burst of radiation associated with a release of magnetic energy. (This explosion arises from the tangle of magnetic fields around the dark spots on the Sun’s surface.)

After the solar flare, there is a subsequent eruption of solar material – a giant cloud of magnetic fields and gases known as the coronal mass ejection, or CME.

NASA Goddard

In terms of the size of the glow, NASA, unfortunately, doesn’t mention any of the dimensions. But, according to some estimates, solar flares are, on average, about 100,000 miles in diameter. (i.e. rockets like these are generally about ten Earths in diameter.) And coronal mass ejections, which consist of a plasma bubble (atoms with their orbital electrons removed) can span 23 million miles.

Note that while the Sun emits all colors of light, we see it predominantly in yellow, as it is the brightest wavelength for the human eye. In the video, NASA offers visible representations of the wavelengths of light captured by the SDO outside the visual spectrum. Hence the triptych of perspectives that appears after about a minute in the video.

NASA Goddard

Aside from the wild visuals, the highlight of the video is obviously that inspiring music. It definitely helps put viewers in that interstellar frame of mind. For our money, anyway. By the way, everyone remembers that we have a $ 1.5 billion satellite headed straight to the sun, right? I hope an eruption like this doesn’t burn that investment.