Early this morning, the Sun erupted with an explosion I can only describe as ginormous. We're in no danger from it, but the size and scope of this thing are simply spectacular. Here's a video I put together of the event using Helioviewer, a public-domain solar viewer:
[embed width="610"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyi4hjG6kDM[/embed]
Yowza! [Make sure to set the resolution to at least 720p, and make it full screen to get the full effect.] What you're seeing here is a solar flare (an enormous explosion of pent-up magnetic energy) coupled with a prominence (a physical eruption of gas from the surface). This event blasted something like a billion tons of material away from the Sun. Note the size of it, too: while it started from a small region on the Sun's surface, it quickly expanded into a plume easily as big as the Sun itself! I'd estimate its size at well over a million ...
