On the Richter scale of solar flares, the eruption you just witnessed registered C2.4. In years past, solar physicists regarded C-flares as minor events, but SDO is revealing them to be quite spectacular. Plasma plumes accelerating out of the blast site are filled with magnetized gas hotter than 80,000 K and are big enough to swallow Earth itself. Earth was not, however, in the line of fire, so we will feel no geomagnetic effects from these events.

Here are three more highlights from May 8th: C1.8-flare, C9-flare, B7-flare. These were selected from the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory's excellent latest events web site. Instigating sunspot 1069 has rotated over the sun's western horizon, out of sight of Earth and SDO, so the show is over for now. It probably won't be long, however, before SDO turns another "minor" eruption into a jaw-dropping spectacle. Stay tuned! [ SPACEWEATHER.COM ] - Movies: 1.8 MB mpg (web), 0.7 MB m4v (iPad), 0.3 MB m4v (iPhone)