Earlier this week, a NASA satellite captured an unusual image of the sun that appeared to be smiling. The agency posted the photo on Twitter Wednesday, briefly describing exactly what the observed phenomenon was.
Does the sun smile? explains NASA
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the “smiling” Sun. Seen in ultraviolet light, these dark spots in the sun are known as coronal holes. They are areas where the fast solar wind is launched into space, the agency writes.
Coronal holes form in the solar corona where the magnetic field lines are open. Solar plasma comes out of them. The charged solar wind particles from the three holes are already heading towards Earth. The greatest amount of plasma is emitted from the larger hole that looks like a smile.
This phenomenon will have an impact on our planet. A mild geomagnetic storm G1 is expected in the coming days, likely to carry auroras from Iceland across northern Scandinavia and Siberia to Alaska and the Arctic archipelago.
Coronal holes appear relatively frequently in the sun. Sometimes they don’t have a big impact on our planet, and sometimes they are so active that they cause severe geomagnetic storms and disrupt the work of satellites or GPS devices. They are visible in infrared in the photos.
The photo was taken as part of a special project. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is the agency’s mission to study “space time” and how solar activity arises. The satellite was launched on February 11, 2010.
See also: Long weekend in November. The Poles have chosen a direction
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