In less than 24 hours, the Sun has unleashed a trio of X-Class solar flares. They are the first, second and third X-class eruptions of 2013, making them the most powerful of the year by a substantial margin. What's more, each burst has been more violent than the last. So uhh... what the hell is going on here?

Photographer Göran Strand used 2464 raw images taken with his all-sky camera to create this gorgeous time-lapse video. The swirling crystal ball images show the view from Östersund, Sweden, when a when a Coronal Mass Ejection hit Earth’s magnetic field.

This is incredible. NASA has just released a never-before-seen video of a solar eruption from July of last year that shows a solar flare, a coronal mass ejection, and loops of solar rain all occurring in one breathtaking sequence.

The sun is at it again, this time blasting its second magnetic bubble of energetic plasma in as many days. The blast is heading towards Earth at a speed of 1,360 kilometers per second and is expected to arrive on June 16.

Earlier this afternoon, magnetic fields on the Sun's northeastern limb exploded in an arcing jet of roiling plasma, producing what is hands down one of the most spectacular solar explosions we've seen in years.

On Tuesday night, the surface of the Sun erupted in an violent solar flare, blasting a massive wave of charged particles in the direction of Earth. And early this morning, those particles smashed into our planet's atmosphere.

Late last Sunday, the Sun unleashed an M9-class solar flare, showering Earth with subatomic particles that gave rise to one of the biggest geomagnetic storms in recent history. The resulting aurorae, which were even brighter than usual in the planet's northernmost latitudes, were an absolute marvel to behold.

What you see in this amazing video really is just a coincidence. A comet smashed into one side of the Sun just as a massive explosion ignited on the other side. Two entirely unrelated events...but they sure look awesome together.

No, Earth hasn't suddenly migrated next to the Sun, but everything else about this picture is awesomely real. This is a plasma eruption from sunspot group AR 1302, the most recent solar storm to wreak havoc on Earth's magnetic field.

The spectacular lights of the aurora borealis are rarely seen outside the Arctic Circle, but fierce solar activity might soon send them southward. The continental US, Japan, and even Mediterranean Europe may all get a taste of the northern lights.