A solar flare has sent a blast of magnetic particles hurtling toward Earth.
This amazing footage was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory between July 5-11. And while such phenomena are a common occurrence, they are less likely to happen as the sun heads towards ‘solar minimum’, a period of low solar activity throughout an 11-year cycle. This massive sunspot, a mind-boggling 75,000 miles wide, is bigger than Earth.