See a solar outburst get sucked back into the blazing sun
The sun is busy making stunning pyrotechnics. A NASA video gives us a close-up look at a particularly scenic eruption.
It's impossible to see the full fury of the sun with the naked eye from our human vantage point on Earth. That's why NASA has the Solar Dynamics Observatory up in orbit to keep tabs on our closest star. It takes a fresh image every 12 seconds. NASA collected a series of images and created a video of the spectacular circular outburst of a solar filament.
The filament erupted over the course of three hours on March 13. NASA shared the condensed version in video format on Monday on the SDO YouTube channel.
NASA describes filaments as "clouds of gas suspended above the Sun by magnetic forces." They sometimes erupt out into space and sometimes simply break up and fade away.
"As one can see, much of the plasma did not have enough oomph behind it to escape the gravitational pull of the sun," NASA writes in the video description.
The filament's circular pattern makes it look like an outtake from the new "Ghostbusters" movie, as if it's an otherworldly phantasm that can't quite escape its prison. At least it doesn't vomit green goo.
The SDO has delivered some eye-catching imagery since its launch in 2010. Filaments are of particular interest since they sometimes turn into massive formations stretching across the face of the sun. In 2014, the SDO spotted an impressive million-mile-long filament reaching out like a dark snake. The circular outburst shows the variety of shapes solar filaments can take.