The "smiling" Sun can have dangerous consequences for our planet.
Following Tuesday's partial solar eclipse, the Sun developed what appeared to be a smiley face pattern in its atmosphere. Taking to Twitter, NASA Sun shared the image which showed a face-like pattern made out of black patches against the Sun's otherwise fiery features.
"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," the American space agency wrote in the caption of the post.
Take a look below:
The picture accumulated more than 11,000 likes and nearly 2,500 retweets. In the comment section, while some internet users were simply left amazed, others pointed out that the picture is "creepy yet cute".
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"Pretty cool but at the same time, horrifying," wrote one user. "Say cheese! and then make the earth a grilled cheese burger," jokingly said another.
A third commented, "Now this is epic," while a fourth added, "That looks so cool! It kinda does look like the sun is smiling".
Meanwhile, as per Newsweek, even though the Sun appears to be smiling upon us, it can still have terrifying consequences for our planet. The face-like pattern is actually the result of the coincidental positioning of what is known as coronal holes, which are basically regions of open magnetic fields in the Sun's atmosphere that tend to be cooler and less dense than the surrounding plasma.
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These coronal holes can have physical effects on our planet as they release a complex stream of solar wind toward Earth that can cause an intense solar storm. As per SpaceWeather.com, due to the Sun's "smiley face", an intense solar storm is now expected to hit Earth on October 28 or 29.
Solar storms are intense bursts of radiation coming from the releases of magnetic energy on the Sun's surface. These flares and solar eruptions themselves do not impact human beings negatively. They can only cause havoc to the technology, including radio communications, electric power grids, GPS, due to the release of magnetic energy. They can also pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.