It seems as though our very own star wanted to get in on the Halloween action as NASA snapshotted an image of a creepily smiling sun this festive season.
The jack-o’-lantern smile on the sun’s surface are actually splotches that occur on the surface which are cooler than the surrounding areas.
The image was taken by NASA’s space-based Solar Dynamics Observatory and was shared to social media. And in came the comments likening it to various unsettling characters.
Say cheese! 📸
Today, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the Sun “smiling.” Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark patches on the Sun are known as coronal holes and are regions where fast solar wind gushes out into space. pic.twitter.com/hVRXaN7Z31
— NASA Sun, Space & Scream 🎃 (@NASASun) October 26, 2022
The official Twitter account of NASA referred to it simply as ‘smiling’ sun, whereas the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities council photoshopped a pumpkin onto the image to create a jack-o’-lantern.
Others likened it to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, a blob fish or even a lion’s eyes and nose. In actuality, the dark areas are coronal holes, which appear as irregular black patches when the sun is imaged in ultraviolet light or X-rays.
Such splotches can appear on the sun at any moment and, being less dense, appear darker in appearance.
Their magnetic field structure also sets them up to release streams of solar wind at speeds of more than 1 million miles per hour. Luckily, Earth’s magnetic field acts a as a shield and largely deflects solar wind activity. These phenomena were however known to disturb the atmosphere.
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