NASA Video: Rare giant solar tornado caught on tape

A giant solar tornado - five times the Earth's diameter - swirling at incredible speed of some 186,000 mph has been captured on video by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

­This is the first time giant solar twister has been caught on video.

Solar tornadoes, known as solar prominences, are shaped by the sun's magnetic field and often occur during coronal mass ejections -- huge explosions of solar plasma. The speed of swirling solar gases can sometimes reach several thousand miles per hour.

This 124,000-mile-tall tornado was filmed on September 25, 2011, but the video was only released to the public at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester (UK) on Thursday.

Xing Li, an astronomer at Aberystwyth University in Wales, believes the finding is a "real gem of an event to fire the imagination, and it is a good way to study magnetic structures in the sun's atmosphere."

Scientists believe that study of solar tornadoes will help understand the causes of space storms in general, which is still one of the great mysteries of our solar system.

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[dinah w]

I was just about to write a big paragraph explaining why you're wrong and kindly explain the science behind this, but then I realized you'd be too stupid to understand...

[Utwig Chenjesu]

you try to state that Co2 is causing warming on mars, and then start calling other people retarded? your ignorence is dangerious, but like all ignorent people, you just cant see it, take your insults and fuck off.

[XxdeathwofXx]

and latvia

[m0bus]

yes

[the1234CODmaster]

only get tornado's in America

[batdragonpurple]

Prof that even the sun has tornados

[LarryLansdown]

I find this difficult to masterbate to. 

[Lauren Christopher]

I though there was no weather in space?

[Nathan Harrison]

yes Damm space you are scary

[Nathan Harrison]

i will never go up there in the sun

[lu19900213]

god! i am reading this paper and i found the video!!! what amazing event it is !!

[Gamer4Ever727]

it is a tornado in 'space'