Tornadoes on the Sun

Last week, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite captured this stunning video of magnetically captured plasma moving like a tornado across the sun's surface.

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. A solar physicist at NASA said the tornado might be as large as the Earth itself and have gusts up to 300,000 miles per hour.


Via: space