A solar prominence can be a thing of beauty -- a glowing red, looping structure that can twist and turn hundreds of thousands of miles into space from the surface of the sun and last up to several months.
Two such structures went bad on Friday, however, bursting outward and creating an arresting solar display of their own. (See the video of one eruption below.)
NASA says the sun erupted twice on Friday within four hours. The looping red plasma -- "a hot gas made of electrically charged hydrogen and helium," the space agency says -- was released in a dramatic double whammy of explosions. The good news: The released material, known as a coronal mass ejection, did not appear directed at the Earth, experts said.
When a CME heads toward the Earth, it can disrupt radio and satellite transmissions and wreak other havoc with power grids.