Solar scare! Take a look at NASA's amazing Halloween Sun jack-o-lantern

Solar scare! Take a look at NASA's amazing Halloween Sun jack-o-lantern

A scorching, fiery Halloween pumpkin is revealed in an image highlighting the active regions of our Sun.

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Published: October 31, 2024 at 8:11 am

This fiery jack o' lantern may look like a lit pumpkin on Halloween night, but it's actually an image of our Sun captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

NASA's SDO telescope observes our host star as it orbits Earth and is one of many spacecraft dedicated to the study of the Sun.

MSH 15-52 Chandra X-Ray Observatory and Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, 30 October 2023 Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./R. Romani et al. (Chandra); NASA/MSFC (IXPE); Infared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DECaPS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford Univ./R. Romani et al. (Chandra); NASA/MSFC (IXPE); Infared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DECaPS; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt

This image was captured on 8 October 2014 and has become famous over the years, often referred to as the NASA Halloween Sun.

But what makes this image look so much like a Halloween Sun?

NASA captures a Halloween Sun. Credit NASA/SDO
NASA captures a Halloween Sun. Credit NASA/SDO

The Halloween Sun explained

It's the active regions on the solar surface. These regions are brighter because those areas emit more light and energy.

They are intense magnetic fields hovering in the Sun's corona; the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere.

The NASA Halloween Sun image blends together two sets of wavelengths at 171 and 193 angstroms.

And because these wavelengths are usually coloured in gold and yellow hues, it gives the jack-o-lantern Sun its Halloween-like appearance.

The NASA Halloween Sun image in 335 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light, making the solar pumpkin appear blue Credit: NASA/SDO
The NASA Halloween Sun image in 335 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light, making the solar pumpkin appear blue Credit: NASA/SDO

Take a look at the NASA Halloween Sun image above.

It's the same one captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, but presented in 335 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light, which makes the pumpkin appear blue.

And below is another view of the Halloween Sun, captured in 171 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light.

The pumpkin appears bright golden yellow, with the areas surrounding the active regions much more visible.

The NASA Halloween sun as imaged by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on 8 October 2014 in 171 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA/SDO
The sun as imaged by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on 8 October 2014 in 171 angstrom extreme ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA/SDO

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