Amazing solar storms of the sun

This image provided by NASA shows giant sun spot activity Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011, from a region on the sun that scientists are calling a "benevolent monster." After years of quiet, the sun is coming alive with solar storms in a big way. 

This image provided by NASA shows the Sun unleashing a medium-sized solar flare, a minor radiation storm and a spectacular coronal mass ejection on June 7, 2011. The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface. The ejection should deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field during the late hours of June 8th or June 9th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when the CME arrives.

IN SPACE - FEBRUARY: In this handout image provided by NASA / SDO, a pair of active regions on the Sun were captured in extreme ultraviolet light from the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) spacecraft over a three-day period between February 7 to 10, 2011. The magnetic field lines above the regions produced fluttering arcs waving above them as well as a couple of flares. Another pair of smaller active regions emerges and trails behind the larger ones. 

The sun, a portion of the International Space Station and Earth's horizon are seen during the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 mission's fourth spacewalk in this NASA handout photo dated May 2011. 

This image provided by NASA Wednesday Oct. 20, 2010 shows the new Moon passing between the Sun and the Solar Dynamics Observatory's space telescope on Oct. 7, 2010.This image provided by NASA Wednesday Oct. 20, 2010 shows the new Moon passing between the Sun and the Solar Dynamics Observatory's space telescope on Oct. 7, 2010.

This image provided by NASA shows an artist's depiction showing a discovery by NASA's Kepler mission of a world where two suns set over the horizon instead of just one. The planet, called Kepler-16b, is the most "Tatooine-like" planet yet found in our galaxy and is depicted here with its two stars. Tatooine is the name of Luke Skywalker's home world in the science fiction movie Star Wars. In this case, the planet it not thought to be habitable. It is a cold world, with a gaseous surface, but like Tatooine, it circles two stars. The largest of the two stars, a K dwarf, is about 69 percent the mass of our sun, and the smallest, a red dwarf, is about 20 percent the sun's mass

This artist rendering provided by NASA, shows Kepler-11, a sun-like star around which six planets orbit. A planet-hunting telescope is finding whole new worlds of possibilities in the search for alien life, including more than 50 potential planets that initially appear to be in habitable zones.

Aurora Australis or "Southern lights" are seen in this picture captured by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) with a digital camera while they passed over the Indian Ocean, in this September 17, 2011 photograph. Auroras are light shows provoked by energy from the Sun and fueled by electrically charged particles trapped in Earth's magnetic field, or magnetosphere. In this case, the space around Earth was stirred up by an explosion of hot, ionized gas from the Sun

NASA handout image, taken by a crew member of the International Space Station Expedition Three, shows the setting sun and the thin blue airglow line on the Earth's horizon, September 16, 2011. Some of the station's components are silhouetted in the foreground. Picture taken September 16, 2011. REUTERS/NASA/Handout (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

In this Sat., Aug. 27, 2011 photo provided by NASA and taken from aboard the international space station by astronaut Ron Garan, the sun rises above above the earth in one of the sixteen sunrises astronauts see each day. This sunrise image shows the rising sun as the space station flew along a path between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina.


Source: Yahoo