Tornado on the surface of the sun (photo: NASA/SDO/composite by Steve Spaleta)
We've reported here many times about storms on the surface of the Sun, and solar storms are commonplace - but records of them never cease to impress and remind us how small and powerless we are compared to the universe.
NASA's Solar Motion Observatory captured what appears to be the "tallest tornado in the Solar System," spinning over the Sun's north pole (yes, the Sun has poles, too). The storm of boiling plasma developed over three days in the Sun's atmosphere a week past.
I spent 3 hours yesterday with my solar telescope pointed at a tall tornado-y looking thing on the sun.
This 14-Earths-tall swirling column of plasma was raining moon-sized gobs of incandescent material on the sun.
I can't imagine a more hellish place.
pic.twitter.com/dewzNEAEJA
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) March 18, 2023
When the peak height of the tornado reached 120,000 km (about 14 Earths lying on top of each other). before it broke up into a cloud of magnetized gas and parts of it were ejected into space. Our sun has been relatively very active in recent days. You can call it weather...), described the activity as "moderate" and identified six sunspots that indicate activity. The largest of them is in the southeast quadrant and may create plasma emissions that may affect solar winds and space weather near Earth, the announcement said British office.
In addition, two coronal holes, which open in the Sun's magnetic field, are currently in the Sun's halo (corona). And are ejecting large amounts of material into space in the form of the solar wind. These currents of magnetized gas may create disturbances in the Earth's atmosphere in the coming days and in our magnetic field , and created a low-grade magnetic storm (G1) - which may actually create more beautiful displays of the Northern Lights.
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