NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a probe that has been monitoring our sun over the past five years, recently captured a stunning image of a coronal hole—a region on the surface of the star where the magnetic field is exposed, emitting high-speed solar winds.
This hole in the sun was spotted by the SDO on October 10, and the coronal material it ejected caused a geomagnetic storm close to the planet which led to several nights of auroras, NASA explained. The observatory captured the picture in wavelengths of 193 Angstroms, which is typically bronze in color by invisible to the human eye.
According to Space.com, the hole is roughly 50 Earths in size, and the particles being emitted in the solar wind are traveling up to 500 miles (800 kilometers) per second. A geomagnetic storm watch has been issued from Wednesday through Friday, the Huffington Post added, and experts are monitoring the particle-carrying solar wind as it heads towards the Earth.
So what the heck are coronal holes, anyway?
Coronal holes, NASA explained, are large, dark areas on the surface of the sun that appear when it is viewed in extreme ultraviolet or x-ray wavelengths. These solar features may last for several weeks or even months, and can sometimes even be as large as one-fourth of the sun’s surface.
These unusual features are “rooted in large cells of unipolar magnetic fields” on the surface of the sun. These field lines “extend far out into the solar system,” which allows a “continuous outflow of high-speed solar wind,” NASA added. Coronal holes typically occur most often in the first few years following a solar maximum, or the period of greatest activity.
Coronal holes are indicative of cooler regions on the sun, and are thus frequently the source of unusually fast solar winds, the Huffington Post reported. These areas have a reduced density of solar material and weaker magnetic field lines, which makes it easier for solar winds to escape and increases the changes that it will reach Earth and cause atmospheric disturbances.
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Feature Image: NASA
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