NASA Video Of Swirling Magnetic Arches On The Sun Is Completely Mesmerizing

 A new video taken by a telescope in space shows a small slice of the awesome beauty of Earth’s closest star.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the video, which shows “cascading magnetic arches” on the sun after a filament of solar material erupted from the star on Dec. 16 to 17, thespace agency said.

The arches look like they’re glowing as they give off ultraviolet light, which is actually invisible to the human eye — but researchers colorized it to make the details of the magnetic arches really pop.

Scientists are keeping an eye on the sun to learn more about the star and watch for anypotentially dangerous space weather that could harmfully impact Earth. A huge burst of plasma in our planet’s magnetic field could create problems with power grids on Earth, satellites in space and even humans on orbit, but monitoring the sun can give researchers a heads up about any extreme space weather heading toward us.