Tornado-like eruptions of super-hot plasma were captured on video by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is constantly recording high-definition videos of the sun. The video shows hot plasma spinning across the sun in early February.
Solar tornadoes are not the windy phenomenon that we know on Earth. They are driven by the magnetic fields of the sun.The plasma particles are being pulled by various magnetic forces causing them to swirl in a way that looks like a tornado.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is part of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program. The program is designed to study and understand causes of solar variability and how it impacts the Earth. SDO launched on February 11, 2010, and is on a 5 year mission to study the energy of the sun and how it influences the weather in space. Every day SDO gathers a huge volume of data. The collected data is available for viewing by anyone who wants to see it. The SDO website has an up-to-date-picture of the sun on the home page.
Note: The SDO mission is very cool.
Something else I learned: A solar cycle is the period of time between the highest and lowest number of sunspots. he suns magnetic poles reverse approximately every 22 years with two eleven years periods in which the number of sunspots wax and wane. We are currently in Solar Cycle 24 which began in 2008.
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