Sun rings in New Year with eruption Sun rings in New Year with eruption - Space updated 28 minutes ago Sun rings in New Year with a spectacular solar eruption NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captures video of 'ballet' on surface of sun As people around the world rang in the New Year to celebrate Earth's latest trip around the sun Monday night, our closest star marked the occasion with some fireworks of its own - a dazzling solar eruption. The space fireworks occurred on New Year's Eve during a four-hour eruption on the sun. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a video of the solar event. The video shows a bright plume of super-magnetic plasma erupting from the sun's surface. "A very nice display of solar activity - it's a New Year's Eve Ballet," SDO officials wrote in a video description posted on YouTube by the mission mascot Camilla Corona SDO, a public outreach effort. The SDO spacecraft is one of several sun-watching space telescopes keeping taps on solar flares and other sun weather events. The sun is currently in an active phase of its current 11-year weather cycle, which scientists have dubbed Solar Cycle 24. The sun's activity cycle is expected to reach its peak (or "solar maximum") in 2013, astronomers have said. The sun has had sunspots every day in 2012. Solar max here we come! SDO mission officials wrote in a Twitter post last week. Follow Space.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. Anatomy of Sun Storms & Solar Flares (Infographic) The Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History Monster Sunspot Triggers Big Solar Flares (Photos) Van Hollen: GOP so dug in on no revenue, we couldn't get a balanced package (09:25) Start the new year off light with "8-Hour Diet" (06:03) Government by deadline: Discussing the House's late-night move (24:57) More videos in Space Related slideshow Month in Space Pictures: The sun steals the show Bright moon may dull meteor shower First meteor shower of 2013 peaks this week Search NBCNews.com 1 Top stories 2 Business 4 U.S. news 5 World news 6 Politics 7 Tech & science 8 Entertainment 9 Health Travel Nightly News Dateline Meet the Press Rachel Maddow See news breaking? Podcasts Local news News alerts 0 MSN home Top # Bottom Switch to regular msnbc.com site Privacy policy / Closed captioning / Legal © 2013 NBCNews.com