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    Solar Tornadoes Dance Across Sun's Surface in NASA Video

    A NASA spacecraft has captured an amazing video of solar twisters blowing across the surface of the sun.

    The tornado-like eruptions of super-hot plasma were spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is constantly recording high-definition videos of the sun.

    The sun tornado video shows swirling fountains of plasma creeping across the surface of the sun during a 30-hour period between Feb. 7 and 8. But unlike tornadoes on Earth, which are wind-driven phenomena, the sun's plasma tornadoes are shaped by the powerful magnetic field of our star.

    "An active region rotating into view provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of plasma," SDO mission scientists explained in a video description. "The particles are being pulled this way and that by competing magnetic forces. They are tracking along strands of magnetic field lines."

    In the video, cooler plasma material appears as darker spots on a bright background. The SDO spacecraft recorded the video in the extreme ultraviolet range of the light spectrum, giving the movie an eerie yellow hue.

    NASA released the new SDO video to mark the second anniversary of the spacecraft's mission, which launched on Feb. 11, 2010. The $850 million spacecraft is on a five-year mission to record high-definition videos of the sun to help astronomers better understand how changes in the sun's solar weather cycle can affect life on Earth.

    The sun is currently in an active period of its 11-year weather cycle. The current cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24 and will peak in 2013.

    You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

     

    25 comments

    • EricB  •  Walnut Creek, California  •  3 mths ago
      If only there was a way we could harness that power here.... hmmmm
      • cantdrive85 3 mths ago
        Tesla figured out a way, but the US government owns the patents and they won't let you infringe upon them.
      • JIM 3 mths ago
        Don't patents expire after 14-17 years? I think EricB is referencing solar energy? I miss Niki!
      • ronald 3 mths ago
        There is,but those who are charging you utility bills won't share it or have you access it unless you pay them otherwise you can't get your hands on it.Same with autos.Cars can run on air pressure but they won't manufacture unitil they find a way to charge you for the air you breathe.Any who you get the the drift.If someone can't make a profit or a killing it's not going get"invented."Same with diabetes theres a cure but a lot of money is changing hands with insulin so why press a cure money talks.
    • Arbutus Dave  •  3 mths ago
      Solar weather forecast for the next 5 billion years. Hot and dry with a chance of sunspots.
    • JIM  •  Northville, Michigan  •  3 mths ago
      Do I hear someone running in the halls? LOL
    • JIM  •  Northville, Michigan  •  3 mths ago
      Some interesting and humorous comments tonight - good group. But play nice - and no running in the halls. lol
    • XARDZ  •  3 mths ago
      sun control everything around his teritorial areas,,and affect everything can reach his ultraviolet range,,
    • DoubleL  •  3 mths ago
      Fabulous video! Really amazing.
    • greene_teeth  •  Chattanooga, Tennessee  •  3 mths ago
      People should always plan to go to NASA whenever vacationing in Florida.
    • greene_teeth  •  Chattanooga, Tennessee  •  3 mths ago
      I believe I understood NASA is being funded for the current quota of employees plus scientists and engineers wanting to work for NASA. I hope this is true. NASA knows when NASA should take themselves to space. Certainly not a politician.
    • JIM  •  Northville, Michigan  •  3 mths ago
      19 comments in 19 hours! What else could people be reading about?
      • ronald 3 mths ago
        One faction plugs'em and the other faction plants'em.That seems to be what's going on lately.
    • Motie  •  3 mths ago
      OT: If any of you are interested in "weather machines", take a look at the Shreveport NWS long range radar right now (6:22 AM CDT). Find Texarkana and then look at the yellow returns being swept away to the southwest of Texarkana. This is not a new phenomenon, I've noticed this pattern many times over the last 4 years I've lived in the area. It usually occurs when there is a threat of thunderstorms or heavy rain in the area. It does not happen all the time though. The Lone Star Army Ammunition plant and the Red River Arsenal are the most likely source. I've talked to several workers out there and have been all over the area and have never seen or heard of any HAARP-type antenna arrays. I do not subscribe to the HAARP conspiracy theories for everything from GW to earthquakes, but I do find this repeating phenomenon interesting. I was wondering if anyone else has seen this time of event in other areas.
      • Motie 3 mths ago
        That would be "this TYPE of event".
      • Motie 3 mths ago
        I would add that neither facility is particularly high security. Hunting is allowed each year on the more remote areas and the gate guards aren't even armed. Most employees are civilian contractors and much of the ammo plant is now leased to private contractors. Just FYI.
    • cantdrive85  •  Denver, Colorado  •  3 mths ago
      What you see is a charged sheath vortex, and tornadoes are exactly the same thing. It is an electric discharge that can and has been created, tested, and measured in a lab. Being that the Universe driven by EM forces, it shouldn't be surprising to see similar events occurring throughout the Universe at many different scales. It is also no coincidence that hurricanes look remarkably similar to spiral galaxies. The EM force is 39 orders of magnitude stronger than gravity, maybe it's time to put the gravity-centric view of cosmology in its proper place.
      • alexinrain 3 mths ago
        that's extremely interesting
      • cantdrive85 3 mths ago
        Dem lookin' like english werds to me.
      • Sam Saun 3 mths ago
        Sorry to say this Cantdrive85, but it is the charge-to-mass ratio that determines whether EM or gravity forces play the bigger role. Since whole planets and starts are not highly charged, your suggestion of throwing away gravity to explain astrophysics is just dumb. For example, how would you explain the effects of a black hole on light, stars, planets, and space?
        I'm not trying to sound like a know-it-all, but if you're going to post a ridiculous statement like that you better have something to back it up with.
    • Bill  •  3 mths ago
      Thank god it missed the trailer park.
    • greene_teeth  •  Chattanooga, Tennessee  •  3 mths ago
      I already believe in life on other worlds. I do not think we are quite ready on Earth to make first contact with those probable higher intelligent species.
      • Arbutus Dave 3 mths ago
        You figure we'll have any say about it?
      • Cicero 3 mths ago
        Greene-this is an article about solar weather, there are no life forms on the sun-at least nothing we would ever be able to recognize as life.
    • greene_teeth  •  Chattanooga, Tennessee  •  3 mths ago
      NASA also needs linguists, mathematicians, philosophers, and peace keepers. These should only be the best of the best. I would say for the rest of us space geeks to "Volunteer for NASA" without putting your own body, family, and pets in danger.
    • ronald  •  3 mths ago
      Just like a politician.Sucks up a lot of hot air.
    • greene_teeth  •  Chattanooga, Tennessee  •  3 mths ago
      I would not be able to handle anyone I love going to the space station for any length of time unless it has always been their dream and they have prepared for this dream all their life then I would just try to be as brave as them for them.
    • cantdrive85  •  Denver, Colorado  •  3 mths ago
      "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." Max Planck
    • Bruce  •  Norfolk, Virginia  •  3 mths ago
      every thing in space is just to far away mars 9 mounths away! neerist star 5 light years away a pound of food for the spece station cost 6000 bucks! so do the math !!!
    • JMOKE  •  3 mths ago
      Let me be the first here. Could this be because the sun is experiencing .... You guessed it: Global Warming? Anyone who believes in man made global warming is an uneducated liberal idiot!
    • “Just Because”  •  3 mths ago
      It's more like a chemical composition of plasma (dissolved molecules and energy, crystal DNA, dissolved gases) a viscosity and internal friction. The increase forcing pressure out into magnetic field lines cooling into the atmosphere not a tornado more like a stage before volcanic magma. Arranging of Atoms!
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