Nasa gets glimpse of solar spectacle

Nasa has released spectacular footage of a solar eruption that dwarfs our planet.

The solar flare, which travelled at about 1,450km per second — the equivalent of Cork to Dublin about six times — was spotted by the agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on Aug 31, but images were only made public recently.

Analysts say the explosion would have been enough to engulf the Earth several times over, had it been close by. Although the flare did not travel directly toward Earth it caused auroras glimpsed in Canada at the start of September.

The observatory, which was launched in Feb 2010, is on a five-year mission to watch and analyse the sun.

🌋Nasa captures spectacular solar eruption http://t.co/h9XkMwen #iwn

— Irish WeatherNetwork (@IrelandsWeather) October 2, 2012