This solar eruption video will straight up melt your face it's so awesome

io9.com ^ | 7 June 2012 | Robert T. Gonzalez

[Windflier]

Damn. We've seen us some solar eruption videos in our day, but this here's a sight to behold.

We've got some incredible photo and video for you here, so pay attention — you don't want to miss any of this.

Up top you'll find some downright gorgeous footage of a coronal mass ejection (a roiling whip of plasma, hurled from an active region on the Sun). It was shot by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory during an intense solar storm on August 31.

Down below we've featured a series of still images from the explosion, and first up is one that should help you put the size of this eruption into perspective.

This "long filament of solar material," as NASA calls it, was spotted tearing away from the Sun at upwards of 900 miles per second. Yes, per second; this CME, as is typical of super-hot plasma filaments that are flung from the sun, was hauling serious ass. It was also freaking enormous — plenty big enough to wrap itself around the Earth a few times — not to mention a few other planets — and still have some plasma left over:

[Windflier]

Dated, but awesome video of a coronal mass ejection.

[doc1019]

Did we survive?

[lurk]

My wife’s hotter.

[OneWingedShark]

No. — :(

[laplata]

The Sun Screen saved us.

[BenLurkin]

Missed us “by that much”

[The Cajun]

Looks like it's one of those “Shields up Mr. Worf” suckers :)

[Windflier]

Did we survive?

Dunno....are we logged in?

[Windflier]

Looks like it's one of those “Shields up Mr. Worf” suckers :)

Definitely. What's really amazing is the size of that thing. Like they said, it was big enough to wrap itself around several planets with a few million miles of gas to spare.

And liberals think man controls the climate on this mud ball...

[mikrofon]

If you look at the photo, it went over top of us....

[BerryDingle]

Wow, that picture will cause Algore to call room service in a towel.

[SkyDancer]

No wonder it’s hot in the east.

[Windflier]

No wonder it’s hot in the east.

That video makes me glad to be in Texas, where it's only in the mid nineties every day :-)

[MaxMax]

Very cool.

[ctdonath2]

Yow.

That hits us, bye bye with just a few minutes’ warning.

[Windflier]

Yow. That hits us, bye bye with just a few minutes’ warning.

Yep. It's amazing that the human race has lasted as long as it has in such a dangerous neighborhood.

[Inwoodian]

Excellent. The tagline too.

[SkyDancer]

Try our outback here mate in the summer. What you have we call winter.

[The Cajun]

And liberals think man controls the climate on this mud ball...

You come right down to it, what ever happens on Earth climate wise, naturally or man caused, is a very distant second to what the sun can do and does everyday, 24/7.

[bigbob]

I pity the planet that’s in the line of that CME!