NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched two years ago with the express goal of getting some steamy glamour shots of the Sun, and boy howdy, has it ever. This video from the New York Times’ Dot Earth blog# compiles a bunch of footage from the SDO, including plasma tornadoes being ripped back and forth by shifting magnetic fields. It’s a personal look at the Sun like we’ve rarely seen.The SDO mission is designed to understand how the Sun affects Earth. This is done by studying the Sun’s atmosphere in smaller, isolated bits of space and time with incredible depth, with the SDO recording information in numerous wavelengths simultaneously. The goal is to understand fluctuations in the Sun’s atmosphere, with the end result hopefully being the ability to predict solar flares and solar storms like the one that had everyone worked up a month ago.The SDO has a wealth of media available online, but this video in particular indulges a sense of cosmic voyeurism I didn’t realize I had. I know that sounds nerdy at best, and vaguely creepy at worst. But don’t knock it, at least not ‘til you’ve kicked back, fired up some Brian Bennett, and watched that gorgeous ball burn.