In magnificent solar display, ‘fiery rain’ loops onto the sun’s surface

A newly-released video from NASA serves as yet another example of the sun’s majesty. Observing the clip, we see plasma spouting away from the sun and raining back down onto its surface in the shape of an arch. However, the series of events that leads up to this captivating display is rather extraordinary. First comes a solar flare burst, followed closely by a coronal mass ejection (or CME) and finally the awe-inducing coronal rain. On July 19th of last year, these three events all occurred in succession, resulting in one of the most “dazzling magnetic displays” yet captured on video, according to NASA. Each frame of the time lapse was captured at 12-second intervals, meaning every second represents approximately six minutes. If the stunning video below isn’t enough for you, BuzzFeed has (of course) captured the solar display in GIF form.