irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Tuesday, October 2, 2012, 14:10

Nasa has released spectacular high definition video of a solar flare breaking away from the surface of the Sun.

The coronal mass ejection, captured by Nasas Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows a filament that had been hovering in the sun's atmosphere, the corona, erupting into space at nearly 1500 kilometres per second.

The eruption happened at 8.36pm (Irish time) on August 31st this year and was large enough to engulf the Earth many times over.

The associated coronal mass ejection passed by Earth on the night of Monday, September 3rd, connecting with Earth's magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear.

The video, shot in 1080p high definition, shows the filament from several different angles allowing viewers to observe how the solar flare behaved.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory is a Nasa mission tasked with understanding the Sun's influence on Earth and near-Earth space. The obervatory, which is observing the Sun over a five-year period, is part of a larger programme which aims to develop scientific understanding of the connected SunEarth system that directly affects life and society.

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Nasa captures solar eruption