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Today, April 16, a class M1.7 coronal mass ejection (CME) exploded from the Sun’s eastern limb — an enormous expulsion of solar material, flung out into space by a giant snap of the Sun’s complex magnetic field.

The video above was captured by NASA”s Solar Dynamics Observatory, showing the photogenic nature of the event.

Luckily this CME was not aimed at Earth, although the active region responsible for it is currently rotating around the Sun’s face and will soon be oriented Earthward. Any future CMEs from this region could potentially affect our planet’s magnetosphere…. stay tuned!

Video: NAS/SDO and the AIA science team. Assembled by the Goddard Space Flight Center.