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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.

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(SDO/NASA via SWNS)

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.

(SDO/NASA via SWNS)

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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