NASA released its first public images today from its SDO ( Solar Dynamics Observatory ).  The SDO spacecraft was launched on Feb 11th of this year with the purpose of imaging the sun and to help us understand more the relationship the sun has with the earth. The SDO features magnetic imaging, for studying the sun’s magnetic fields, a Helioseismic sensor, for studying pressure waves generated by the sun’s currents of energy, and a ultraviolet & extreme ultraviolet imaging for understanding connections between the variations of magnetic and UV fields. The results of these studies can also help us understand more about solar winds, which create the tails on comets.

The youtube video below shows, with stunning clarity, a prominence eruption, a loop shaped plume of the suns energy. To give you a sense of perspective of the size some of these prominences are, in ’97, SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a spacecraft for observing the Sun) caught on that was 216,000 miles long - 28 times the diameter of the Earth.

Visit : NASA’s Official SDO website