Eruptions of plasma piling atop one another, solar wind streaming out in exquisite detail -- the closest-ever images of our Sun are a gold mine for scientists.

Sunspot 3912 erupted with an X2-class solar flare.NOAA's GOES-R satellite captures footage of the blast in multiple wavelengths. Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: NOAA | edited by Steve Spaleta

The burgeoning space industry and the technologies society increasingly relies on—electric grids, aviation and telecommunications—are all vulnerable to the same threat: space weather.