A 'Really, Really Beautiful' Solar Flare Splashed Across the Sun

NASA's Goddard Space Center captured some amazing footage of today's disturbance

Today, a huge solar flare jumped up from the sun and blossomed over a huge area of its surface before settling back down in a cloud of plasma. The effect of the three-hour disturbance was beautiful, and because of the sun's angle, the radiation won't have too much of an effect on the earth when it arrives tomorrow or Thursday. It might energize the aurora, also known as the northern or southern lights, but that's not exactly a problem. "It's not necessarily anything spectacular as far as space weather," said NASA scientist C. Alex Young, "but it's just really, really beautiful." Here's the NASA video, courtesy of Geeked on Goddard.