Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) provides crystal-clear images of features on the sun's surface. This composite image shows a whirl of a new developing sunspot colliding with an existing spot that explodes into a major solar flare.
The solar flare shown depicted here was captured on 13 December 2006.
The flare produced high-energy protons that reached the Earth at the time of STS-116 Space Shuttle flight.