In the early hours of May 17, 2011 a beautiful filament erupted from the Sun and sent a cloud of plasma into space. This Coronal Mass Ejection was not aimed at Earth but most likely will interact with Earth's magnetic field two days later, creating some of these beautiful auroras. The second segment...

This movie of the March 6, 2012 X5.4 flare was captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in the 171 and 131 Angstrom wavelength. One of the most dramatic features is the way the entire surface of the sun seems to ripple with the force of the eruption. This movement comes from something called...