Spacecraft Sees Solar Storm Engulf Earth

August 18, 2011: For the first time, a spacecraft far from Earth has turned and watched a solar storm engulf our planet. The movie, released today during a NASA press conference, has galvanized solar physicists, who say it could lead to important advances in space weather forecasting.

“The movie sent chills down my spine,” says Craig DeForest of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.  “It shows a CME swelling into an enormous wall of plasma and then washing over the tiny blue speck of Earth where we live.  I felt very small.”

A wide-angle movie recorded by NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft shows a solar storm traveling all the way from the sun to Earth and engulfing our planet. A 17 MB Quicktime zoom adds perspective to the main 40 MB Quicktime movie.