Watching the side of the Sun that’s facing away from Earth, the ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission witnessed the hyperactive sunspot cluster AR3664 produce the biggest flare yet of the current solar cycle. This was followed by a burst of energetic particles moving at a significant fraction of the speed of light and a large amount of solar material blasting out in a so-called coronal mass ejection.
While most solar observation missions that observe the Sun’s side that’s facing Earth couldn't see this event, the coronal mass ejection was large enough for the ESA/NASA SOHO mission to see it spreading outward from the back of the Sun. If this material had been directed towards Earth, the measurement would have been filled with bright specks made by particles hitting the detector.
This video combines images of the Sun taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory with coronagraph images taken by the SOHO's LASCO C2 (red) and C3 (blue) instruments. The bright spots to the right of the Sun are Jupiter and Venus.