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dark fireworks presented by science at

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nasa

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warning

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the movies you are about to see might

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make you feel uncomfortably close to the

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sun on june 7 2011 earth-orbiting

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satellites detected a flash of x-rays

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coming from the western edge of the

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solar disk

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registering only m for medium on the

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richter scale of solar flares

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the blast at first appeared to be a

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run-of-the-mill eruption

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that is until researchers looked at the

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movies

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we've never seen anything like it says

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young a solar physicist at goddard space

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flight center

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half of the sun appeared to be blowing

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itself to bits

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video beamed to earth by nasa's solar

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dynamics observatory revealed one of the

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most dramatic explosions ever

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in terms of raw power this really was

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just a medium-sized eruption says young

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but it had a uniquely dramatic

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appearance caused by all the inky dark

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material falling back to the stellar

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surface

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solar physicist angelos forlidas of the

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naval research lab calls it a case of

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dark fireworks

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the blast was triggered by an unstable

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magnetic filament near the sun's surface

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he explains

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that filament was loaded down with cool

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plasma which exploded in a spray of dark

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blobs and streamers

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the plasma blobs were as big as planets

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many larger than earth

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they rose and fell ballistically moving

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under the influence of the sun's gravity

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like balls tossed in the air exploding

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like bombs when they hit the stellar

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surface

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some blobs however were more like guided

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missiles

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in the movies we can see material

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grabbed by magnetic fields and funneled

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towards sunspot groups hundreds of

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thousands of kilometers away notes for

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lead us

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seo also detected a shadowy shockwave

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issuing from the blast site the solar

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tsunami propagated more than halfway

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across the sun visibly shaking filaments

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and loops of magnetism in route

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as remarkable as the june 7th eruption

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seems to be young believes it might not

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be so unusual in fact he says it could

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be downright common

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before the sharp-eyed solar dynamics

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observatory was launched in 2010

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space-based telescopes observed the sun

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with relatively slow cadences and or

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limited fields of view they could have

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easily missed the majesty of such an

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explosion catching only a single

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off-center snapshot at the beginning or

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end of the blast to hinted what actually

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happened

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could more dark fireworks be in the

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offing

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says young i wouldn't be a bit surprised