STEREO, NASA’s twin spacecraft mission getting a nice tan and taking tridimensional images of the Sun, has recorded a solar tsunami for the first time. The tsunami, a circular shockwave which traveled a million kilometers (621,371 miles) in just 30 minutes, is caused by a huge explosion on the star’s surface. STEREO took the images thanks to its new cameras which, unlike the previous solar mission SOHO, are fast enough to capture the wave in detail, confirming the previously theoretical ultra-speedy nature of the titanic waves that travel through our home star from time to time. Wait— did I say Home Star?
Yes, this whole Sun thing was a big fat hot excuse to put up some good videos. [NASA via BBC News]
