Published 14:36 IST, October 26th 2020
Sun looks like an eerie jack-o’-lantern as people get into sinister spirit for Halloween
Sun's active regions are composed of bright blazes combined with darker spots that emit light in a way that it appears like pumpkin face, NASA informed.
On October 25, NASA shared a photo of the spooky sun that appears to look like a scary jack-o’-lantern face as the festivities pick up for Halloween. The image was captured Oct. 8, 2014, by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO that watches solar surfaces at all times. In a post, the Space administration shared on its official Twitter handle, it said, as the Halloween edges closer, the cosmos puts up the creepy celestial displays, referring to the pumpkin sun.
According to NASA, the sun's active regions are composed of bright blazes combined with darker spots that emit the light shades in a way that the solar surface looks like the carved pumpkin face. these active regions are the markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona. The solar surface is a blend of two sets of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths at 171 and 193 Ångströms, typically colorized in shades of golden and yellow. "In 2014, active regions on the Sun traced out an eerie jack-o’-lantern’s face, seen in ultraviolet light by our Sun-watching satellite," NASA informed in the caption of the spooky sun image.
This gives the sun its Halloween-like appearance. While it was observed by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, the solar body was in 335 angstroms extreme ultraviolet light that led the space probe to catch a rare glimpse, in which, the sun appears to leer from the space. The surface of the sun also distinctly projects frowning eyes and a smirk. NASA shared the images in different shades as observed by its SDO.
Netizens share 'Spooky Dark Sun' images
Sharing another perspective, a commenter wrote, "Jack-O-Lanterns face visible at sun-spot are really a sun’s structure held in-universe." "A solar jack 'o lantern! Is the Sun, the fuel of life, hell itself, the residence of the ruler, the director of anti-life? Perhaps Sol is the balancing attractive force that will ultimately collapse our system into original equilibrium," one other said. Meanwhile, another agreed, saying, "I see Jack’o Lanterns face in the sun wow."
[The sun as imaged by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on Oct. 8, 2014, in 335 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA/SDO. Credit: NASA]
[The sun as imaged by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on Oct. 8, 2014, in 171 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA/SDO. Credit: NASA]
Updated 14:35 IST, October 26th 2020