article_snippet.sent: You might have seen fantastic images of the sun before, or even clips showing its activity - but you’ve never seen anything like this.
article_snippet.sent: Taken over five years, The footage includes plasma raining down on the sun, an extreme solar eruption and even a comet breezing through the sun’s atmosphere.
article_snippet.sent: ‘offers a glance at spicules, solar flares, filaments and an overview of the sun’s atmosphere.
article_snippet.sent: Highlights of the video include large, bright tendrils extending outward from the sun
article_snippet.sent: ’s surface and occasionally crashing down again - known as solar prominences.
article_snippet.sent: Other fantastic sections show bright, active regions on the sun
article_snippet.sent: Transits of the moon, Venus and Earth across the sun, as observed from the SDO, are also seen, while towards the end of the video Comet Lovejoy can be seen passing the sun in December 2011.
article_snippet.sent: Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), illustrated below, was launched on 11 February 2010 and has observed the sun ever since.
article_snippet.sent: Five years into SDO mission, SDO continues to send back tantalizing imagery to incite scientists' curiosity.
article_snippet.sent: For example, in late 2014, SDO captured imagery of the largest sun spots seen since 1995 as well as a torrent of intense solar flares.
article_snippet.sent: Elsewhere, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are seen erupting on the sun
article_snippet.sent: CMEs are the huge waves of material that are seen in images of the sun, and CMEs can pose a threat to satellites in Earth orbit.
article_snippet.sent: Solar flares are flashes of energy on the surface of the sun, which are sometimes associated with CMEs - although their connection is not well understood.
highlights_snippet.sent: Transits of the moon, Venus and Earth are also seen - and a comet breezes through the outer solar atmosphere .