Maybe It's A Distress Call: Sun Shoots Brilliant Solar Flare

This is a 5-second (literally, five seconds) time-lapse video of the sun exploding with a brilliant solar flare yesterday (April 16th). It wasn't a particularly strong one, but it is one of the most impressive NASA's managed to catch on tape. The most impressive thing I've managed to catch on tape? A duck eating a frog. He was all, "What you got there, GW -- balled up pieces of bread? I'mma eat this frog!"

Hit the jump for the five second version, along with a minute version so you can see the before and after (the blast is right at 0:24).

This is the most spectacular solar flare we've seen in ages [io9]

Thanks to Lawrence, who once shot a flare off in the woods just to see what would happen. SPOILER: Smokey came and whipped his ass.

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