The STEREO satellite observatories orbit the sun in the same orbit as earth, parked in Lagrangian points, mathematical constructs of stability where they wont be tugged about by either the earth or the sun. One is 60 degrees ahead, one 60 degrees behind, allowing for stereoscopic views of the sun (hence their name). You should see what they just saw.
The scale of this tsunami literally dwarfs the Earth's diameter — it was 62,000 miles high and raced across the surface at 560,000 mph
NASA explains it well:
Years ago, when solar physicists first witnessed a towering wave of hot plasma racing along the sun's surface, they doubted their senses. The scale of the thing was staggering. It rose up higher than Earth itself and rippled out from a central point in a circular pattern millions of kilometers in circumference. Skeptical observers suggested it might be a shadow of some kind—a trick of the eye—but surely not a real wave.
"Now we know," says Joe Gurman of the Solar Physics Lab at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Solar tsunamis are real."
The twin STEREO spacecraft confirmed their reality in February 2009 when sunspot 11012 unexpectedly erupted. The blast hurled a billion-ton cloud of gas (a "CME") into space and sent a tsunami racing along the sun's surface. STEREO recorded the wave from two positions separated by 90o, giving researchers an unprecedented view of the event
The data was finished with its processing and released yesterday.
I bring this up to illustrate a point: NASA succeeding is a 'hey, cool' moment. NASA failing is front page news for days. It's a confirmation bias effect from people conditioned to think NASA is a waste of money. Another easy example would be to pick the Mars Rovers. Designed and expected to last 3 months. NASA has somehow (it's as surprised as you are) managed to keep them going for almost 5 years.
This, people, is why NASA needs more money. Its budget is pocket change. 0.58 percent of the US budget in 2007. Thats minuscule. Considering the proportional spending here, let me quote Phil Plait:
A lot of people think NASA is a waste of time and money, and maybe this is why; they have a grossly overinflated idea of how much NASA spends. When NASA loses a $150 million probe, that’s a lot of real money, but hardly a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend as a nation (and remember, we spend $11 million per hour in Iraq).
I remember hearing a talk by a Hubble scientist years ago, and he said that if you download two or three Hubble images and use them to decorate your office or as a desktop wallpaper, you’ve gotten your money’s worth out of the telescope. I think he made a really good point. Exploration, science, understanding, beauty: the price on these is small, and it’s even smaller than most people think!
NASA is starving. The science and technology developed at NASA gets into your hands quicker then you'd think. Modern digital cameras came out of the designing of Hubble. Fire suppression systems today are largely based on NASA's work in the 1960's. And theres more to come if we can fund it.
Towing a single small Type-S asteroid into an earth orbit would provide as much iron and steel as the entire planet uses in a year with none of the pollution and environmental damage that mining leaves behind. Asteroid mining is simply amazing in its scale:
One NASA report estimates that the mineral wealth of the asteroids in the asteroid belt might exceed $100 billion for each of the six billion people on Earth.
This is just one example out of many, but the fact is clear, we could go as long as a decade without a presence in space between the retirement of the shuttle and the entry into regular service of the Constellation system, consisting of the Ares I, IV and V rockets. NASA plays a far more vital role in modern society then most people realize, but that role has been under threat for decades now. It's time to step up and fund the agency that will help mankind step into its future.
Edit: The Rec list? You guys are wonderful. I could smooch every last one of you.