Sun Tornadoes, Eruptions Of Super-Hot Plasma, Skirt Solar Surface In New NASA Video

By: Tariq Malik
Published: 02/17/2012 06:12 PM EST on SPACE.com

A NASA spacecraft has captured an amazing video of solar twisters blowing across the surface of the sun.

The tornado-like eruptions of super-hot plasma were spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is constantly recording high-definition videos of the sun.

The sun tornado video shows swirling fountains of plasma creeping across the surface of the sun during a 30-hour period between Feb. 7 and 8. But unlike tornadoes on Earth, which are wind-driven phenomena, the sun's plasma tornadoes are shaped by the powerful magnetic field of our star.

"An active region rotating into view provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of plasma," SDO mission scientists explained in a video description. "The particles are being pulled this way and that by competing magnetic forces. They are tracking along strands of magnetic field lines."

In the video, cooler plasma material appears as darker spots on a bright background. The SDO spacecraft recorded the video in the extreme ultraviolet range of the light spectrum, giving the movie an eerie yellow hue.

NASA released the new SDO video to mark the second anniversary of the spacecraft's mission, which launched on Feb. 11, 2010. The $850 million spacecraft is on a five-year mission to record high-definition videos of the sun to help astronomers better understand how changes in the sun's solar weather cycle can affect life on Earth.

The sun is currently in an active period of its 11-year weather cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24 and will peak in 2013.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

• Stunning Photos of Solar Flares & Sun Storms
• NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory
• The Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History

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Comments

[laidbackdude679]

04:30 PM on 02/22/2012

we should send a team of liberals for an up-close observation

i had to

it's beautiful though

[secondcoming]

02:51 PM on 02/22/2012

the areas where our planet is least protected are the polar regions, north and south pole. above these areas we have huge holes in our ozone layers much which are depleted due to man made pollution. All it will take is one ill placed projectile from the sun to melt one of our poles and send our planet into a nuclear winter. As you've probably already seen there's been a huge increase auroras, What that's telling you is the sun bombarding us with intense solar flares. It's also revealing how far south these auroras are appearing. When one can see an Aurora from the north in Mexico and on the plains of Ohio we're getting a lot of magnetic leakage through our faults. So not only is our planet heating up from the outside it's also heating up and expanding from deep inside. Much of the current activity from the sun can be attributed to it's alignment with energy being radiated out of the milk way. To the ancients the sun was a God, When you know who your God is you pay a lot more attention to them, You don't want to catch them in a bad mood.

[SiriusMrE]

03:18 PM on 02/21/2012

It is maddening that the fiction of "magnetic field lines" (and the power of their "reconnection") continues to be perpetuated in this story. "Magnetic field lines" ARE NOT REAL. They are no more "real" than longitude/latitude lines, or topographical lines. (Does their merging cause earthquakes or gravitational anomalies?)

Magnetic field lines are drawn (in schematic drawings) ONLY as a visualization aid to represent the relative strength of the field at any given point at any given moment, and DO NOT represent actual "lines" of force in magnetic fields. Each moment in the life of the magnetic field, the lines need to be redrawn to correspond to the field strength at that moment; they do not move, merge, or "reconnect." They cannot, as they exist ONLY as a notation device. Magnetic fields are FIELDS, not collections of lines of force. One may put the moment-to-moment representations of the field strength together to form a kind of movie, which can make the lines look like they are merging, etc.

But, they are not. The field is changing, but the lines themselves do not exist, and so do not do anything--never mind "reconnect."

This kind of talk from space scientists about magnetic fields seems to be shamefully and deliberately misleading on this point.

[RobertFromMN]

05:58 AM on 02/21/2012

Liquid hot "magma".
http://wigglingmytoes.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/dr_evil_magma1.jpg

[MrTaban9]

10:06 AM on 02/20/2012

The sun is currently in an active period of its 11-year weather cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24 and will peak in 2013.

And it is this cycle that has scientist concerned this particular year n next. If one of these SOLAR STORMS RELEASES A HUGE "CME" (coronal mass ejection) we humans here on earth must hope the "MAGNITOSPHERE" does it job and deflects the CME around this planet and not directly hitting the upper global hemisphere which would KNOCK OUT ALL ELECTRICITY AROUND THE TOP PORTION OF THE EARTH. The UGLY part is we would have NO POWER FOR WHAT MAY BE WEEKS, MONTHS, YEARS, according to the History Channels report on "Our Universe". The problem will be the TRANSFORMERS, it takes 6 MONTHS JUST TO BUILD ONE they say, we would NEED 10'S OF THOUSANDS ACROSS THE CONTINENTS THAT ARE AFFECTED, in Europe, Parts of South America, Asia, All of North America would be in TOTAL DARKNESSS. No Radio, TV, Phone, Internet, Water, Gasoline, NO NOTHING! FOR A VERY LONG TIME THEY SAID :-(. It would not be long B-4 SOCIETY BREAKS DOWN, mass riots in the streets over what supplys will be left (if any). WITHOUT FUEL WE WOULD ALL STARVE TO DEATH EVENTUALLY, and since there is no power FUEL will be in great demand and people will be killing, stealing, fighting for what drops of fuel may be available. It WILL BE A SAD DAY ON THE PLANET.

[Citats]

11:05 AM on 02/21/2012

Stop using caps lock. Now.

[MrTaban9]

11:34 AM on 02/21/2012

Stop using caps lock. Now.

DUH! The caps are used to POINT OUT SPECIFIC POINTS, NOT YELLING as so many seem to think.

[backwaterbandit]

02:29 PM on 02/22/2012

ya mean all these cell phones/blackberries/text devises won't work? great day. our poulation will have to learn to live life with out electricity? no cars, tv, HOLLYWEIRD? come on solar storms

[Brandon Baier]

09:18 AM on 02/20/2012

I hope some else notices this patern of crap we are getting from NASA the last couple years. Everytime there is a Solar Flare, or a CME, NASA releases something about the solar cycle being in a state of decreasing activity. Yet every time I turn around, I see some kind of hightened activity, and now the peak hasn't passed, it is yet to come, and all in line with Mayan Calendar... will the world "end"... I'm not sure, but truly it cant just be a coincedence.

[palindrom]

09:20 PM on 02/20/2012

Um, I don't notice this at all.

The sunspot numbers over the last decade+ are plotted here:

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml

I heard a talk recently by a noted expert in Mayan astronomy. The 2012 hysteria is complete nonsense.

[Brandon Baier]

10:26 PM on 02/20/2012

Perhaps its the media I should complain about. Not NASA themselves, as far as complete non-sense, there are quite a few experts that note the Mayans have been right about alot, now what the calendar expiring actually means, thats whats up for debate. A very reknowed scientist once said that matter couldn't move faster than light, he was wrong. I am just saying dont count it out, this planet and its technology is much more fragile, and probably alot tougher than we think... all at the same time. :) Just thinkin' out loud.

[badman5150]

03:30 PM on 02/22/2012

It's also a feeble attempt to keep NASA relevant since the current administration has ham-stringed the entire operation.

[Brandon Baier]

03:22 PM on 02/23/2012

This is a very good point as well.

[dspcowb]

08:57 PM on 02/19/2012

Just fantastic. I am so knocked out by these magnetic tornadoes. Looking at it using UV video capture is just ingenius. I wish I could see in UV at will. But who knew? These things were happening? Everytime I see events like this I can't help but marvel and what we didn't know when I was a kid in the 60s. Imagine the most futuristic game the writers of the first Star Trek series could come up with was 3D Chess. Now I can see the sun as it functions practically in real time in the comfort of my living room. Makes me wonder what channel earth is on what Planet.

[Kazbekovich Elbrusovich]

04:23 PM on 02/19/2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-H8zDoML60

[dim]

10:18 AM on 02/21/2012

Nice one. That's a big burp.

[Iatros78]

02:54 PM on 02/19/2012

The images are spectacular. I would just caution the anti-science people that they might want to dismiss this story as a fraud. NASA is, afterall, the group that says that the evidence for human-caused warming of the earth is clear. They also claim to have landed men on the moon.

[oneeasyrider]

02:23 PM on 02/19/2012

Fantastic UV video of the Sun. That's some serious power! It's a shame we can't figure out how to harness even just a fraction of the energy. When you're watching the video, you are seeing the equivalent energy of ten billion one-megaton bombs every second.

[Areyoukiddingg]

02:47 PM on 02/19/2012

We know how to harness it, but the 1% still own all that oil....

[no dash american]

11:14 PM on 02/19/2012

And that engine that runs on straight water

[Claudia L]

11:52 AM on 02/20/2012

Hi! My Friend. I wouldn't want to see every person on earth able to access unlimited energy. Like I have a dumb neighbor and if he found efficient and abundant solar energy that he could generate, he would zap all his neighbors. Know what I mean? That's what scares the government about Solar.

[dim]

10:21 AM on 02/21/2012

Ok. You win. Yours is the most hilarious post I've seen this week.

[oneeasyrider]

06:00 PM on 02/22/2012

Clever as usual, Claudia, but I'm guessing you do know solar isn't be a worrisome energy source like say, cold fusion. If your'e worried about the neighbor, then it's a good thing cf isn't a viable option.