Coronal Mass Ejection: NASA Records a Giant Solar Wave On May Day

Impact

In space news, May began with a spectacular solar eruption that unleashed a wave of super-hot plasma. On Wednesday NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured what is called a "coronal mass ejection (CME) — a type of sun storm that can fire off billions of tons of solar material at more than a million miles per hour," which erupted in a gigantic rolling wave.

Thankfully this CME occurred on the sun's limb (apparently the sun has limbs) and is not headed for Earth. According to Space.com, "When aimed directly at Earth, the most powerful CME events can pose a risk to satellites and astronauts in orbit, as well as interfere with communications and navigation networks. They can even damage ground-based power infrastructure."

The time lapse video is taken in extreme ultraviolet light and was recorded over a period of about two and a half hours.

Space is awesome.

See here for more on CME's.