By Tim Binnall
Almost perfectly timed for Halloween, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory snapped a rather amusing image wherein it appears that the sun is smiling. The cartoonish picture was reportedly taken by the space-based scientific outpost last Wednesday. Sharing the uncanny image on social media, the space agency explained that the dark patches which make up the eerie visage's eyes and nose are, in fact, areas known as coronal holes and that they are regions on the sun where "fast solar wind gushes out into space." While the celestial jack-o'-lantern is undoubtedly a wondrous sight, experts caution that the forces which created the 'face' are no laughing matter.
Physics professor Brian Keating of the University of California at San Diego explained to the Washington Post that "its eyes are like gleaming laser beams sending particles that can cause severe disruptions to the atmosphere on Earth" particularly with regards to our communications systems. It is believed that the solar winds which created the 'face' will likely wash over our planet sometime this evening, leading Keating to muse that “there could be something on our way for Halloween night after all. Pretty spooky, but hopefully not too spooky." The 'smiling sun' is not the first time in recent years that it seemed as if space was weirdly celebrating Halloween along with us as a spooky skull-shaped asteroid famously passed by the planet back in 2015 and then again in 2018.