Butterfly-shaped hole appears on the Sun
The giant hole was spotted facing Earth, likely firing solar winds at our planet that could lead to spectacular auroras.
By Dean Murray
Astronomers' hearts were a-flutter this week when a butterfly-shaped hole appeared in the Sun.
The giant coronal hole was spotted facing Earth, likely firing solar winds at our planet that could lead to spectacular auroras.
A coronal hole is a cooler, less dense area in the Sun’s outer atmosphere where magnetic field lines open into space, allowing fast solar wind to escape.
Science website EarthScience said: "A large coronal hole has rotated into a geoeffective position, where it’s capable of affecting Earth. And it should now be sending its fast solar wind our way."
The spectacle was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a spacecraft that keeps an eye on our star from about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away.
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