NASA shares staggering footage of 'Coronal Mass Ejection' on sun at 16,00,000 km per hour

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory or the SDO is dubbed as the ‘unblinking eye’ on the Sun that has been monitoring the solar activity that drives the space weather. On Thursday the space agency shared staggering footage of a phenomenon known as coronal mass ejection – or CME which was observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in 2013. Over the past decade, the spacecraft has kept a constant eye on the Sun, studying the dynamic conditions in space that impact the entire solar system, including Earth. NASA explained in an Instagram post that the CME or the coronal mass ejection witnesses colossal waves of solar plasma in which billions of particles are ejected into space at the exorbitant speed of 1 million miles, or 1,600,000 kilometres per hour from the sun. 

“Unlike solar flares, which are powerful bursts of radiation that can temporarily cause communications and navigation blackouts, CMEs like this one can temporarily overload electrical systems if power companies are not prepared,” NASA wrote in an Instagram post on July 28. It further explained, that its “fleet of solar observatories track these fascinating components of space weather, so disruptions on Earth are minimal.” 

NASA heliophysics fleet captured CME at sun's East limb

The CME event shared by NASA was caught by its heliophysics fleet on May 1 in 2013 occurring on the active region just around the East limb (left edge) of the sun. The footage was taken as the huge cloud of solar material—a heated, charged gas called plasma erupted on the solar surface. SDO provided a beautiful view of the initial arc as it viewed the phenomenon in an extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 304 angstroms.

“Such eruptions soon leave SDO's field of view, but other satellites in NASA's Heliophysics fleet can pick them up, tracking such space weather to determine if they are headed toward Earth or spacecraft near other planets. With advance warning, many space assets can be put into safe mode and protect themselves from the effects of such particle radiation,” NASA explained in a release. Apart from SDO, CME has also been observed by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Meanwhile, NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) Ahead satellite has also recorded these CMEs from a very different angle.