Video of New Year’s Eve solar blast
An incredible swath of plasma erupted from the Sun on December 31st, 2012 over a four-hour period. NASA stated that a massive eruption on the surface of the Sun blasted out a wave of super-hot plasma so high that it could tower over 20 Earth. The length of the eruption extends about 257,495 kilometers (160,000 miles) out from the Sun. With Earth about 12,714 km (7,900 miles) in diameter, this relatively minor eruption is about 20 times the diameter of our planet.
Magnetic forces drove the flow of plasma, but without sufficient force to overcome the sun’s gravity much of the plasma fell back into the Sun.
Credit: SDO
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