Images like these, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on Feb. 24, make we wish our video player had a "loop" function.

Check out some previous posts of solar photography on PhotoBlog:

• Sun shoots out monster blast ... but Earth is safe (A still photograph of the event in the video above, with more reporting from John Roach)
• Double whammy on the sun (Two simultaneous flares occured in January)
• Stare at the sun (Nov. 2, 2010 - one of our most popular posts shows pictures by amateur astrophotographer Alan Friedman--if you haven't seen it before, you should take a look.)