NASA SDO: Giant Solar 'Tornado' Whirl Off the Sun - Video

A NASA spacecraft has captured spectacular video of an enormous plasma "tornado" spinning off the sun.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory probe (SDO), watched the dark-hued twister churn and ultimately erupt over the course of one day, from April 29 to 30.

Mission scientists used the spacecraft's imagery to create an 18-second-long video of the dramatic solar tornado.

"The suspended plasma is being pulled and stretched by competing magnetic forces until something triggers the breakaway," NASA officials wrote on SDO's Facebook page, assuming the voice of the spacecraft.

"This kind of activity is fairly common on the sun, but we have only been able to view them at this level of detail since I began operations just four years ago."

The plasma appears dark in this ultraviolet-light view because it is cooler than the material surrounding it, NASA officials added.

The $850 million Solar Dynamics Observatory launched in February 2010 on a five-year mission to study the variations in solar activity that influence life on Earth.

The probe uses three different instruments to observe the sun, gathering data that is helping scientists better understand the solar magnetic field and space weather.

Over the course of its operational life, SDO has recorded many stunning images of solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other sun phenomena.

Rare Tornado Strikes Venice, Italy

Rare Tornado in Venice

Credit: Still from YouTube video.

A tornado swept across Italy's historic island city of Venice at around 11 a.m. local time yesterday (June 12), leaving a trail of twisted debris and a shaken populace in its wake.

Videos and images posted on YouTube and splashed across the websites of local media outlets showed a large and menacing twister looming above picturesque tiled roofs and the historic seascapes for which the city is famed.

Tornadoes near the northern Italian coastal city are rare, but they have wreaked havoc in Venice in the past. On Sept. 11, 1970, one or more tornadoes ripped through the region, killing as many as 50 people. In Venice, the twister lifted a boat out of the water and slammed it back down again, killing at least 21 people, according to local media reports. Although the Mediterranean coast may not be famed for its tornadoes, Carbin said twisters can spin up just about anywhere. "There are hotspots, and of course in North America, we have the largest hotspots," Carbin said, "but tornadoes have been reported in England, France, Germany, Asia, Indonesia." A combination of warm air, moisture, a thunderstorm and layers of different winds in the atmosphere sets the stage for a twister. "Anywhere you can put those ingredients together, you can get a tornado," Carbin said.