Watch ESA and NASA's Video of a Solar Eruption in Progress

The Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint project between NASA and ESA, captured footage of a spectacular solar eruption on Saturday:

The red circle in the center blocks the direct light from the Sun, which would prevent the viewer from seeing anything, and allows for live footage of the phenomenon via the much dimmer light around the sun. 

The Sun is host to the largest explosions in the solar system, including coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are enormous bursts of gas and magnetic field. Although associated with solar flares, they are a different type of explosion, occurring as a result of magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection refers to the rearrangement of magnetic fields when two fields of opposite directions come into contact. This causes a sudden release of energy, which then ejects the CME.