It’s been a busy week for NASA in the days leading up to Halloween. The agency released a new image of Eagle Nebula taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. . By coincidence, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory managed to capture a similarly spooky image of the sun.
On Wednesday, the agency shared a capture of the sun “smiling.” As Many Twitter users pointed out the star’s appearance. in NASA’s image. There’s a bit of interesting science behind the resemblance. “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,” according to NASA. Solar winds are constantly being sent out by the sun. Sometimes, these geomagnetic thunderstorms can knock out power here on Earth. As was the case with Canada’s part of Canada. .
This isn’t the first time the Solar Dynamics Observatory has captured an interesting image of the sun. NASA released an animated video of the sun performing a task in 2016. . The capture was the result of a seven-hour maneuver the SDO completes once a year to take an accurate measure of the star’s edge.
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