NASA Took A Photo Of The «Smiling” Sun

The Solar Dynamics Observatory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) took an unusual picture of the Sun.

The frame was posted on NASA Sun’s Twitter account.

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. pic.twitter.com/hVRXaN7Z31

— NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) October 26, 2022

The “smile”, which is clearly visible in the image, is dark spots visible in ultraviolet light. They are called coronal holes, in the region of which the density and temperature of the plasma are lowered. It just so happens that in the image of the space observatory, two coronal holes look like twinkling eyes, and the third and most massive resembles a smile.

NASA accompanied the image of the “smiling” luminary with the phrase “Say cheese!”, Adding an explanation about the origin of such unusual dark spots on the Sun. The photo caught the attention of social media users

Between 2010 and 2015, the observatory transferred about 2,600 terabytes of data, including 200 million photographs.