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VIDEO: Huge solar tornado sighted at the height of 14 Earths

The sun records countless eruptions.  / Photo: AFP/Getty Images
The sun records countless eruptions. / Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Photo: SDO/NASA/AFP/Getty Images

The opinion

By: The opinion Posted Mar 26, 2023, 0:36 am EDT

He Sol is a huge ball of plasma that regularly registers explosions and spectacular events, such as the one that was recently recorded in which a huge tornado could be seen on its surface.

Recently, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) observed a tornado swirling near the sun’s North Polehe. Reportedly, heThe height of the boiling plasma became almost equivalent to that of 14 Earths combined.which implies that it could be the largest in the entire solar system.

According to SpaceWeather, this tornado lasted three weeks before disintegrating. The spinning filament began to expand on March 14 and exploded on March 18 in a “cloud of magnetized gas.”

The phenomenon reached an approximate height of 120,000 kilometers or 14 Earths one over another. The disappearance of the solar tornado spewed plasma into the surrounding space. However, the Earth did not suffer any damage.

According to the UK space weather report, solar activity has increased recently. There are six sunspots visible, one of the largest could generate solar flares and plasma ejections in the coming days, which could affect space weather.

Besides, Two coronal holes have been discovered in the Sun’s upper atmosphere. These could send large amounts of solar wind towards Earth. This would supercharge the northern lights at higher latitudes.

He sun is slowly reaching the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, explains SpaceWeather, and these phenomena will continue to occur from time to time. However, these events are mostly harmless to the planet.

Captured from Earth

Many amateur astronomers captured this fiery formation pointing their telescopes toward the sun’s north pole.

Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy tweeted: “This column of plasma 14 Earths high it was spewing moon-sized chunks of incandescent material into the Sun.”

“I can’t imagine a more hellish place”he added.

I spent 3 hours yesterday with my solar telescope pointed at a tall tornado-y looking thing on the sun. This 14-Earths-tall swirling column of plasma was raining moon-sized gobs of incandescent material on the sun. I can’t imagine a more hellish place. pic.twitter.com/dewzNEAEJA — Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) March 18, 2023

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