Major solar flare imaged by Hinode

This video, obtained by Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope (SOT), shows a whirl of a new developing sunspot colliding with an existing spot that explodes into a major solar flare. This solar flare, captured on 13 December 2006, produced high-energy protons that reached the Earth at the time of STS-116 Space Shuttle flight. The flare is shown in 3 different wavelengths. This video provides crystal-clear images of features on the sun's surface.