When a solar flare erupted yesterday, scattering a billion atomic bombs' worth of energy into space, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory was staring at the sun. They recorded this video, which NASA released Friday morning.
The footage shows the flare in three different wavelengths of light. Teal and gold correspond to ultraviolet light, while the blue channel shows only that wavelength.
The flare itself affected Earth directly for about an hour, causing problems on some radio frequencies, but the larger impacts will come from a subsequent wave of charged solar particles called a coronal mass ejection, or CME. Researchers think the CME will pummel Earth's natural magnetic field Saturday through Sunday, exposing power grids and satellites to possible disruptions.
The bright side, however, will be bright: Solar storms trigger dazzling northern lights. For this weekend's CME, heliophysicist Alex Young of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center hopes the auroras will reach as far south as Washington, D.C., though it's impossible to know for certain until moments before the CME reaches Earth.
If the auroras indeed reach south and you plan on photographing them, then send your favorite shots to Wired Science with "aurora photos" in the subject line. If we receive enough, we'll post them.