NASA satellite captures 'fiery plasma ballet' dancing on the surface of the Sun
Meteorologist/Science Writer
Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 4:55 PM - When you're charged with keeping an eye on the Sun's activity, you're going to capture some powerful, dangerous and spectacular events, and this one, spotted by the unblinking eye of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on Sunday, satisfies all three of those criteria at once.
The video above tracks the development of an incredible 'plasma ballet' that took place near the eastern limb of the Sun, early in the morning on November 9, 2014.
According to the NASA SDO Facebook page:
|
| A tangled mass of plasma, controlled by powerful magnetic forces, swirled out above the solar surface on November 9, twisting and turning before it streamed back into the Sun.
|
|
Eruptions like this are fairly commonplace, especially now, when the Sun is still near the peak of its 11-year cycle. In some cases, such as when the active region they're associated with blasts out a powerful solar flare, the energies involved can toss these ribbons of plasma out into space - as coronal mass ejections - where they can interact with objects in our solar system.
Here on Earth, when one of these CME's interacts with the planet's magnetic field, it can spark off geomagnetic storms, which can produce brilliant auroras around the poles. Particularly strong CMEs can cause similarly strong storms and push the auroral displays to where many more people than normal can enjoy them.
This particular gout of plasma was not associated with a specific solar flare, and the sunspot complex that it spawned from, AR 2208, hasn't been very active, overall.
The major activity, currently, is Active Region 2205, further north on the face of the Sun, which blasted out a powerful X1.6-class flare on November 7, along with several other medium class flares, going all the way back to the beginning of the month.
Get ready for the return of a monster, though.
According to SpaceWeather.com, Active Region AR2192 - the giant sunspot that lashed out with six separate X-class flares towards the end of October - will be making a return visit soon, after persisting on its two-week trip around the far side of the Sun. What will AR2192 have in store for us? With the loss of communications with NASA's STEREO-B satellite last week, we've been a little blind on that side of the Sun. However, views from STEREO-A are showing something pretty big and bright tracking towards us, but we'll probably have to wait until it pokes around into SDO's view (probably later this week) to know for sure.
RELATED: Watch an angry giant lash out repeatedly as it tracks across the surface of the Sun
CLICK BELOW TO WATCH: This video, from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, tracks sunspot AR2192 on its journey, pausing to let us marvel at its magnificence.
