Fast Solar Tsunami

A tumult of plasma, or charged gas, writhes on the sun's northern hemisphere on August 1, as seen in ultraviolet light by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. The different colors show the temperatures on the sun, ranging from about 1 to 2 million Kelvin (1.8 million to 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit).

The superfast solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, sent a burst of charged particles aimed directly toward Earth, prompting predictions of unusually showy auroras.