Extraordinary pictures of solar 'tornado' as large as the Earth moving at 300,000mph

These amazing pictures, captured by a NASA satellite, show a gigantic tornado moving across the sun.

The tornado is larger than it might look - in fact, it is probably bigger than the Earth, and could extend hundreds of thousands of miles out into space.

And while its progress over the sun's surface seems almost stately, it is moving at 300,000 miles per hour.

Twister: This tornado, which is as large as the Earth, is moving at 300,000mph across the Sun

The extraordinary phenomenon - which cannot yet be fully explained by scientists - was filmed by Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory over a 30-hour period earlier this month.

That satellite, known as the SDO, is in the middle of a five-year mission to monitor how solar activity affects the Earth, particularly changes in the sun's magnetic field.

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