NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) took a portrait of the sun last week, making it appear to have two dark eyes, a rotating round nose and smiling at us. "Speak of Eggplant!" NASA posted this eye-catching image on Twitter.
There is a scientific explanation behind this charming smile. "Today, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the 'smile' of the sun," NASA said. "In ultraviolet light, these dark spots on the sun are called coronal hole , and are the area where the rapid solar wind surges into space."
SDO was launched in 2010 and has been paying attention to the sun's activity in space since then. It is used to study space weather and track star flares and eruptions.
It's been a busy week for the sun. On Sunday, NASA released an updated video showing its activity, including several solar flares and dozens of coronal mass ejections (explosion of solar matter). This vigorous space weather can have an impact on the earth, creating beautiful aurora lighting and sometimes destroying communication systems.
Twitter users see this grinning sun image and quickly discover that it has similarities to Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in " Ghostbusters ".
UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council also joined in and reprocessed the image and turned it into a happy Halloween pumpkin.
You may remember another accidental SDO image from 2014, when the sun had a lantern face that looked very much like Halloween.
thinks our native star as happy and kind, which is good, although it likes to spit out potentially destructive solar flares from time to time.
