Solar Tornadoes As Wide As Five Earths Discovered

Solar tornadoes several times as wide as the Earth can be generated in the solar atmosphere, say researchers in the UK.

A solar tornado was discovered using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly telescope on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) satellite. A movie of the tornado will be presented at the National Astronomy Meeting 2012 in Manchester on Thursday 29th March.

“This is perhaps the first time that such a huge solar tornado is filmed by an imager. Previously much smaller solar tornadoes were found my SOHO satellite. But they were not filmed,” says Dr. Xing Li, of Aberystwyth University.

“This unique and spectacular tornado must play a role in triggering global solar storms,” Dr. Huw Morgan, co-discover of the solar tornado adds…. Rest of article with all images here: