NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recently spotted a plasma tornado spinning just above the sun’s surface, and the volatile winds held strong for roughly 40 hours.

A giant, swirling plume of superheated plasma churned above the surface of the sun for 40 hours last week while a NASA spacecraft looked on.

The solar event, which started September 1 and lasted through September 3, was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. “The temperature of the ionized iron particles observed in this extreme ultraviolet wavelength of light was about 2.8 million degrees C”.

In 2012, the Solar Dynamics Observatory filmed a solar tornado that also dwarfed Earth. NASA says the temperature of the suspended iron particles in this tornado were about 5 million degrees Fahrenheit. The spiraling material appeared near the solar equator, which, according to Professor Cairns, gave a situation for the coriolis force to be relevant.

Professor Cairns said that while plasma plumes are common on the sun’s surface, they rarely take the form of a vortex. “The first one was only reported in about 2010”, Professor Cairns said.

Between April 29 and 30 previous year, the SDO captured another solar ‘tornado, ‘ with images used to create a short video.