APOD 3.6 Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection

The Sun (is a mass of incandescent gas...), true, but it is also volatile as this picture shows. Taken by the sun orbiter SOHO in X-ray, you can see the huge Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) erupting from the sun. The view spans 2 million km away from the sun, so you can guess just how big the CMEs are. At the Solar Activity minimum, a CME can eject once a week, but at the peak, it can erupt up to twice a week. Very dangerous if it heads towards earth. The sun in the picture has been overlayed by a view of it in ultraviolet light.